Good Morning, Sunshine
by Skitts
Summary: .:AkuRoku:. All Roxas wants to do is destory his sister's toy animals and get some sleep. Not have a weird girl ask him if he's gay. .:Multichaptered, Multipairings:. .:Complete:.
1. o1 : personal questions

_ Starting_ _Notes: I don't own Kingdom Hearts. Hehe._

-.**G**ood **M**orning _Sunshine_.-

Chapter One.

.personal questions.

**-x-x-x-**

He just wasn't a morning person, the boy decided, his mind still tied to the warm comforts of his bed, eyes protesting to his fatigued brain that they just wanted to close and let him fall asleep on the path like some hobo. Although, he was not going to do that, he told himself, because that would be undignified and would ultimately make him smell a bit strange, and would not help his popularity. He could hear it now, kids boasting that their best friend was so lazy he collapsed on the side-walk on the way to the work behind a trash can. Yeah – if only relationships with real human beings were that easy.

Eyes stung in a most unpleasant way as he rubbed them in an annoyed manner with the back of his hand, concentrating on placing one sneaker in front of the other, over and over in a monotonous cycle. He should be happy that his little sister Naminé woke him up so early, accompanied by painful windmill cycles with her arms and screaming, in her usual daily routine of 'piss Roxas off at six-thirty a.m.' Because without her persistence and attempts to deafen him before he turned sixteen, he would never be able to motivate himself to escape the refines of his room and mingle with society. Yeah, he was pretty thankful to Naminé and her hyper ways right now, he thought darkly, imagining all of the fun activities he could do with her assorted Disney Land plush toys when he got home. Most of them involved ripping the stuffing out of all of them and mutilating them in the most painful ways possible.

Caught up in his lovely, big-brotherly thoughts of what to do with Naminé's favourite toys, he barely noticed the annoying jingle of the bell heralding his entrance to the ice-cream parlour. That was funny, because his teenage mind often became infuriated with that annoying jingle. To him, it didn't signify a place that was loved by all young children desperate to hit sugar-highs and go hyper. To him, it signified another day of work – and the place may have been nice to visit if he was the customer getting served, but definitely wasn't the ideal place to be the one who was doing the serving. It really didn't help with his style factor having to wear that stupid hat, either, and the boy swore every time he tried to listen to one of his favourite CDs somehow it faded away into the ice-cream theme and shrieks of little kids wanting vanilla, not chocolate.

Just as every other, it was going to be a long and boring day, thought the boy, letting the usual visit of 'where the hell were you, blah, blah, blah, late again' from his boss drift around him in a meaningless torrent of words, jamming his mandatory work-hat over his blonde hair. He hadn't even started and he already wanted to slam his head of the counter and fall asleep – not that doing what his heart desired the most would get a very good reaction from Yuffie. The bitch.

.x.o.x.

"Hello." A breezy voice brought him out of him out of his sleep-deprived stupor, as he lifted his head up from the counter it had been resting on for the past few minutes, re-arranged his hat and attempted to look professional at his art of serving ice-cream. Not that you need to be qualified for it or anything – and he hardly made enough munny for the bother of putting up with Yuffie and various annoying customers and little children. It was all his mother's fault. Yes – all her fault, although he could hardly destroy her stuffed animals like he would with Naminé's. She didn't have any.

"What do you want?" asked Roxas in his customer-voice. It was a vague attempt of sounding nice and cheerful and happy like he woke up of his own accord at six a.m. and said 'good morning sunshine' to himself in the mirror like everybody else on Destiny Islands seemed to do. It was un-natural.

"Three sea-salt ice-creams, if ya wouldn't mind, " said the girl in cheerful tones, looping her arms loosely behind her back, the accessories on her rather unusual attire clinking softly together, the result of a multitude of zippers and charms on her dominantly pink clothing. Yes, Roxas thought, this girl was a prime example of a 'good morning sunshine' personality.

He turned his back to her to fish out the ice-cream scoop that had been sterilising in the sink from its last encounter with a tub of rum and raisin, drying it roughly with a towel before hacking at a block of artificially-enhanced blue gunge. All the while, the chipper girl was humming some sort of variation of a pop song that was probably in the charts that week, drumming her fingers to the rhythm on the counter. She would be stamping her feet, spinning around and clapping her hands next, thought Roxas with mild irritation.

"Here you go, miss," Roxas said dimly, gesturing to the three cones he held awkwardly, wondering if the girl had realised she only had two hands and therefore would find it hard to carry them all. "That'll be fifteen munny, please."

He waited, holding the fast-melting treats, watching in annoyance as she fumbled around in the numerous pockets in her skirt, giggling slightly, as she produced a few twigs, a mobile phone and a piece of paper with somebody's instant messenger address scrawled over it, for all Roxas could tell. None of these items were very helpful for paying for ice-creams – although she could exchange her mobile phone in a very unfair trade if she felt like it. Obviously, though, she had a little common sense.

"Oooh, I think I left my purse at home," the girl sighed with a pout. Well, if she thought she could ice-creams for free just by looking cute she was mistaken – Roxas didn't want a girlfriend and Yuffie would only make him pay for them. "Wait – I'll go 'n torture Axel and Demyx. Hold my ice-creams, m'kay?" she asked with an accompanying embarrassed grin to her words, as she quickly departed to find these friends of hers.

Roxas gritted his teeth as a blue liquid dribbled down one of the cones, the annoying music playing again, buzzing like a chainsaw in his poor, sleep-deprived brain.

.o.x.o.

After a few seconds, the boy's eardrums were treated once again to the lovely chimes of the ice-cream theme he swore would eventually drive him to an early grave or the mental asylum. He had a rather sad life planned out ahead of him – an insomniac, constantly on the verge of collapsing from sleep depression, no love life, no real popularity. Hell, he needed some exaggeration in his life to make it sound half-way as interesting as those 'sunshine' kids – their lives were baskets of roses. He had friends and was just a lazy kid and that was about it. Oh, and not forgetting his vast mental hatred for that stupid bell that was probably unhealthy. Not as unhealthy as those weird ice-creams her was holding, probably stuffed full of chemicals that sent Naminé hyper.

The distorted noise – distorted because Roxas was trying to use every molecule of his being to rise above the music and the urge to throw a chair at something – meant the pink-obsessed girl had returned, with her two friends in tow.

Both were noticeably taller than her, wearing highly contrasting clothes to her pink – mostly shades of blacks and grey. The tallest, most anorexic-looking one had tattoos on his face, for God's sake, and eyeliner. They were both definitely ones to be sorted into the category of 'cool and popular' and probably Goths too – Roxas wondered why they hung around the annoying little girl at all. Maybe there was a hidden charm to her personality buried deep down somewhere within her – somewhere very, very deep down, that was hard to identify without the aid of a magnifying glass.

"Nice hat," commented the weird eye-liner guy who was either a Demyx or an Axel, a smirk playing across his features. His rather nice-looking features, really, thought Roxas absent-mindedly. His eyes were bright green, a sharp contrast to the hair exploding from the scalp like flames.

Roxas averted his gaze from him, ignoring the comment about the hat (rise above it, rise above it), and towards the coloured munny the girl with a similar hair colour to the tall kid was pushing towards him. Not that the ice-creams were probably worth that amount anymore, since substantial pieces of the ordered chemical, artificially enhanced splodge had melted into liquid and run down his hand, puddling on the floor and on his skin. It was an interesting hue – blue mixed with peach.

He handed them over for the munny, each of the teenagers accepting one of the ice-creams, the girl grinning at Roxas, who was ever-so-slightly oblivious to her looks, his tired baby blue eyes becoming captivated by the tall guy who was either called Axel or Demyx, as he swivelled his tongue around his ice-cream, somehow still managing to smirk as he did so. It was very … captivating.

"Thanks," smiled the other one dressed in black with some band's emblem displayed on shirt, his blonde hair styled into some sort of weird concoction between a Mohawk and a mullet. His blue eyes were warm when he smiled; making him seem less intimidating despite his size, and Roxas could now see why _he_ hung out with the girl. But why did the other one…?

"Thank you," echoed the girl with a small smile, shooting a look at the red-headed one whose tongue was still darting out around the ice-cream. She giggled at him, and looked at Roxas with a faint quizzical expression on her face, seeing him look intently at her friend. "Hey, I have something to ask you," she grinned, an evil look playing around on her features that had seemed so innocent up until a few seconds ago.

"What?" asked the boy, completely unprepared for the question that was about to come tumbling from her lips. It was probably some cheap dig about his hat or a comment that she knew him because she babysat his sister.

"Welll… Judging by the way you keep staring at Axel… Are you gay?"

**-x-x-x-**

_ End notes: Yeah, this is what I come up with after about an hour and a half of writing. I just stink at beginning chapters, do not kill me. Should I continue? I want at least **one** review to let me know if you like it or not ._


	2. o2 : i envy your people skills

-.**G**ood **M**orning _Sunshine_.-

Chapter Two.

.i envy your people skills.

**-x-x-x-**

The weird girl's question had played around in the boy's mind for a while after she asked it, and Roxas couldn't place his finger on the reason why. Most rumours that went around about him (everybody on the island was interested into prying into everybody else's business) were easily quashed by a cold remark and a raised eyebrow. And just as easily as that, he cast off the stupid assumptions and didn't let them plague his mind any further, dispelling them casually with a metaphorical flick of the wrist.

So why couldn't he get the girl's remark out of his head?

It was obviously ridiculous, a made-up fabrication she invented to humiliate Roxas and let her friends get a few cheap laughs. So why did he care so much about it? That was simple, he decided stubbornly, he didn't care, it was his mind starving for sleep that had twisted everything around so the merest thing became hard to forget. Yeah, _that_ was it – it was just like the ice-cream tune, damned infuriating that haunted you for hours after because there was nothing left to think about.

'_I'm _not_ gay_,' he mentally reassured himself, burying his head into his pillow, dishevelling his blonde hair until it looked like he'd been dragged through a hedge. '_God, this is frustrating. I spend the whole day wanting to go sleep and when I finally can this girl's question warps my brain and makes that impossible. I swear that if I ever see her again I will hurt her. A lot._'

.x.o.x.

"Hewo, Roxas," greeted the hyper voice of the annoying blonde thing more formerly known as Naminé. "C'mon, wake up you lazy bum!" said blonde thing giggled gleefully as if tormenting her brother was the best sport in the world. Forget bear-baiting, Roxas-baiting was the new big craze. She frowned when he lazily waved her away with one hand, eyes still resolutely closed, trying to block her out. Maybe if he ignored her she'd go away eventually, like a nasty smell.

"ROXAS!" she screamed in her young child's dialect, obviously insulted and infuriated at being ignored. The teen groaned and stirred slightly, the great elaborate plan of his in ruins – she was too persistent. His sister, delighted in registering faint movement from her lazy brother, proceeded to poke him in the eye with one finger, seeming quite confused when her ear-drums were treated to furious roar. The sort of roar like a lion or a thunderbolt that would send you hiding under the bed if you were Naminé's age, but she was a strong girl and used to hearing Roxas yelling at her for reasons she couldn't quite fathom. She only tried to wake him up, in the one way she knew was guaranteed to get a reaction. She watched in amusement as he brought his hand up to his now rapidly swelling and reddening eye, cursing under his breath as not to warp her young mind with such dirty words.

"Naminé. Out. Now. Please," he hissed at her, the idea of ripping the head of a Mickey Mouse toy never seeming more tempting. If he couldn't get to that, however, the girl would be as good enough a substitute in his decapitation plans. It wasn't fair murdering your sister was considered illegal in several different countries.

"Okayyy," she grinned, happy at having completed her mission of arousing him from his slumber, skipping off merrily to go and torment some more defenceless people, probably. All the while she was singing in a loud voice, a song she had probably invented on the spot about somebody called Bob and frozen yoghurt, from what an extremely pissed off, in pain and sleepy Roxas could decipher.

He would have to put ice on his eye to stop the swelling, most likely, he thought grumpily, rolling over to check the clock, his one functioning eye momentarily blinded by the flashes of colour emitting from it. When he finally got his vision back, he found out it was 9.17 a.m.

Glad that at least he didn't have to go to work, as it was Saturday, he got up, threw some clothes on – not really caring what they were with one eye throbbing painfully in reminder of Naminé's wake-up call and mind hazy from lack of sleep – and made his clumsy way downstairs. Forcefully he grabbed an ice-pack from the freezer in the kitchen and a piece of toast from the table. He pressed the ice-pack it to his eye, hearing Naminé being her usual (loud) self in the living room with the T.V on full blast and his mother doing the ironing, moaning at now his poor ears were suffering. He was going to end up deaf and blind when he finally escaped the madhouse that was his home.

When his stupid eye went back to normal and his hunger was sedated, he was going to go outside and complain loudly about his life to anybody who would listen.

It sounded like a good plan.

.o.x.o.

"Naminé poked you in the eye?" giggled the girl, lacing her fingers idly in her belt loops, seated on one of the numerous benches that littered the park area. "Jesus, Roxas, you've got to learn to stand up for yourself. You're letting your little baby sister murder you," she said, shaking her head like some sort of psychiatrist. Well, Roxas didn't know much about the people working in that field, but he had a strong feeling they didn't burst into useless fits of laughter every five seconds and were fifteen years old – and very short for their fifteen years of age, at that.

"I was trying to go back to sleep and my eyes were closed – how the hell did I know she was going to poke me?" asked the boy in tones that came out more whiney than he would have liked, knowing he probably sounded like a toddler who was upset because somebody stole their favourite toy fire engine. But hell, he eye still gave occasional involuntary twitches every now and again. However, maybe that was down to the fact that he still would rather have liked to be in bed – but the stinging of his eye and the noise Naminé had been creating made him feel it would have been impossible and almost laughable to attempt to carry out those actions. She'd only have ended up blinding his other eye, anyway, and he didn't want to sacrifice his it when it already hurt enough thank you very much.

The brunette next to him with the impossibly-gelled hair that flipped up in a way that defied gravity at the ends – it was unnatural, damn it – grinned, her attention veering away from that particular subject of Roxas being a wimp. He was glad of that.

"Do you think it's safe for them to be in there?" she asked in voice that indicated she didn't really care that much about the matter but was talking for the sake of hearing her own (disgustingly bright for so early in the morning) voice.

"What?" asked the boy seated next to her blankly.

"The kids in the fountain," she explained slowly like she was talking to somebody who was mentally retarted and kept insisting one plus one equalled sixteen, motioning with her head towards said fountain.

It was true – the water feature housed a small group of children running around in an animated game that appeared to be 'tig', like it was some sort of pool, the dirty green water from people throwing in their rubbish and beer bottles swirling in a sickening way around their legs. Really, why couldn't the children use the actual paddling pool designed for them, Roxas wondered idly, his mind playing ahead to further scenarios where a child would scream and end up being rushed to hospital with a piece of glass wedged five inches into their foot.

"Probably not, but it's their fault if they end up in hospital," replied Roxas with a shrug of the shoulders, causing to girl to frown at him slightly. Well, Selphie was – immature as she may be – the one selected by most parents to do the babysitting when they were out at business meetings. She often felt it somehow her fault if a child got hurt even when she wasn't on babysitting duties, she probably knew half the kids risking their limbs in the fountain anyway. That was how he and the bubbly girl had met in the first place – his parents had gone out to dinner and they didn't trust Roxas with Naminé because they thought he'd cleave her head off her shoulders or stab her with a pencil or something. Actually, that was probably what Roxas would have done left to his own devices, but Selphie had handled everything very well.

"I guess…" she responded to her friend's 'screw-the-kids-if-they-die' comment, still looking doubtful. She wasn't a person he would had thought he would have got on with, but he found out that she could shut up for five seconds to let you moan about life and always managed to find a solution to make it better, may it be with a load of ice-cream or a lot of trade-mark Selphie chatter and a smile. She was good at comforting people, like a mother figure.

Speaking of being good at comforting people when they had a problem … Roxas frowned, as he thought of the words the girl had spoken to him yesterday that still bit at his mind unwittingly even now whilst thinking of the grim fates of the children in the fountain. Maybe he could talk to Selphie about it and she would laugh and cement the fact it was obviously a complete lie and had no basis in the truth. He was definitely was not attracted to that stranger called Axel – no way.

"Hey, Selphie, I ran into this weird girl yesterday at the ice-cream store…" he began, but no sooner had he started saying this than she collapsed into giggles, forgetting the children in peril. Roxas glared at her angrily. He had already been accused of being gay, been poked in the eye and woken up at an un-godly time, and Selphie was already laughing before he'd even said anything. "What's so funny?" he snapped.

"Who was the girl, huuhhh, Roxy? Was she cute?" she asked, nudging him with her pointy elbow.

Roxas glared at her with one of his looks he usually reserved for Naminé, but she had long since grown immune to them, having lived with him all his life. Selphie, however, had only known him for a few months at most, and he was pleased to find it achieved the right result – it shut her up.

"_Anyway_, as I was saying, I met this weird girl, and she couldn't pay for her ice-creams, so she dragged her two friends in," he said, retelling his story, as Selphie picked at some loose thread on her jeans. "And she saw me looking – just _looking_, okay? – at one of her friends, and then she asked me if I was gay. In front of everybody in the store." Not that there had been anybody else there at the time apart from the girl, Axel and Demyx. But he liked to make it seem dramatic.

Selphie looked up. She giggled again.

"Well, it's obvious she was right, because you've hung out with me for three months and you have yet to realise how truly gorgeous I am. Infact, I'm surprised you haven't jumped on me yet," she finished up, her blunt statement being awarded with a shocked look on her friend's face, followed up quickly by a murderous scowl, as she laughed.

"You're not helping!"

"Seriously, Roxy, she made a cheap comment to get a few laughs, so what? You know you're not gay and that's all there is to it," she said in a sing-song voice, a smile playing about her lips. "Hehe."

"Nnnm," replied Roxas, if anybody could call the odd sound he made a reply at all, prompting a devious look from the brunette.

"Hah. I envy your people skills," she grinned, her words becoming drowned out in the sounds of maniacal barking from some sort of demon-dog. Well, it had to be a demon, for all the noise it was making, as it silenced the young children in the pool as they all simultaneously turned their heads to watch the freak show that the barks obviously must lead on to.

"What the hell is that?" exclaimed Selphie, moving to look at was happening, as if on auto-pilot, Roxas' gaze following hers. It certainly was a way to un-dull a morning.

.x.o.x.

Demyx really, really liked Kairi (as a friend) but becoming her buddy he had to accept the consequences. For one of the downsides of being one of the chipper girl's acquaintances was that he really, really hated her dog. Actually, everybody hated Kairi's dog apart from the owner of the pet, who must have been on crack when she bought the damned thing. For it was constantly barking, and it must somehow have sensed with its evil mind-reading abilities that Demyx didn't like it, since whenever he walked it for his friend it always tried to knock him to the ground somehow and drag him behind it, and destroy any dignity he had.

At least Axel and Kairi found it amusing.

"Kairi, the damned dog is trying to jerk my arms out of my sockets!" complained the teen in bitter tones, as it struggled against it's lead, making Demyx wonder if it had been a bear in it's past life. It had the same violent tendencies of trying to bite him. "Can't you walk him? Just once?"

"Demyx, shuddup, I thought you were strong, for God's sakes," countered Kairi, grinning down in a sickening way at 'it' as she bonded with her pet. The dog didn't deserve to be a dog in his mind, it should forever be known as 'the thing'. As in 'the fucking annoying thing he'd like to attach a firework to.' Although that was more Axel's field than his. "And Pluto is just adorable – he would never dare hurt anybody!"

Yes. There it was again, sighed Demyx, as Axel cackled in a rather evil way behind him. The proof that Kairi was on crack or insane and needed to be locked away in a mental home in case she proved to be a danger to herself or others. Her dog already was and it wouldn't be soon before she fell into the pits of insanity after it. Poor girl. She didn't deserve such a cruel fate. To compensate for this when the time came around Demyx would take delight in seeking her vengeance by stuffing its head and mounting it on his wall. Not that his parents would allow it.

"This dog, Kairi, will kill you! Kill you in cold blood when you have your back turned!" Demyx insisted.

"Kairi will kill _you_ in cold blood if you dare speak a word against her beloved dog," said Axel, accompanying his words with an eye-roll.

"You know me so well," grinned Kairi, her malicious sense of humour warping her pretty features. That was why Axel hung out with Kairi – because she could be pure evil if she wanted to. Mostly she decided to be a cruel sadistic bitch to Demyx – the whole reason why she made him walk Pluto in the first place. She knew they had a long rivalry between them and wouldn't waste any chance to humiliate him.

They walked (or in Demyx's case, was dragged) into the area of the park where the fountain was housed, the soothing splashes of water cascading from the pretty feature doing no good in hiding the murderous roars the dog was making, causing everybody occupying the area to turn their heads, because everybody was nosy and didn't mind their own business like they should.

And Roxas stood up from his bench, looking at the trio. He knew them, he realised, and he turned to look at Selphie to point out the weird girl who had questioned his sexual orientation yesterday, but he never got a chance.

A lot can happen in a split second, he realised, as the events seem to play in fast-forward. The evil dog the Demyx boy was attempting to restrain from eating anybody latched its eyes on the numerous little children who were staring, with a frozen look of horror of their little faces in the fountain. The lust for fresh flesh become too immense for the hellhound – well, that's what Demyx would say – as it ran forward with a new reserve of strength and energy the boy never knew it had, darting forth, dragging him along with it.

Did Kairi and Axel deign to help him?

Did they hell. Pluto bounded forwards, Demyx being pulled behind him, as it careened into Roxas who just got in the way, both of the boys falling back. At least they landed into the conveniently placed water-feature with a loud splash, the kids scattering in alarm as they ran off, anywhere away from the glares the dog was giving them with shifty eyes, if that were even possible, the look clearly saying 'I'll get you next time.'

.o.x.o.

"Fuck," growled Roxas in frustration, his clothes and hair wet through, a stinging sensation in his hand where he was sure the large creature had bitten him, staggering back from the monster as Demyx apologised over and over again, looking as pissed of as the other boy.

First, he got accused of being gay, then he got rudely woken up by being poked in the eye, then, to add the cherry to piling mountain of stress and humiliation, he got thrown into the fountain. Fan-fucking-tastic, he growled. And no, he had to fall into the fountain in full view of the girl who had accused him of being gay, the boy who she accused him of mentally undressing with his eyes, and … Selphie. Who was laughing manically. Well, they all were. Shit.

"Hahahahahahahaha!" cried Selphie in exaltation, making her 'friend' wonder bitterly if she was going to have a heart-attack from all her mirth his fall into the water had given her. "Oh my God, you should've seen your face as the dog pushed into the fountain, Roxas! Hehehehehe! Jesus, I wish I had a camera!"

Kairi grinned along with Selphie, instantly liking the girl for finding that weird boy's situation funny. Roxas was well aware most stares and laughter were directed at him rather than Demyx, who was busy trying to drag Pluto out of the fountain.

"Oh, so you're name's Roxas," the evil girl grinned. "I think we met in the ice-cream parlour yesterday." Bitch. You knew damn well we met in the ice-cream parlour yesterday, after you insulted me, Roxas thought darkly, hoping a hole would open up in the ground and swallow him. Or her. Or Axel. Or Selphie. He wasn't picky. Demyx was the only one who wasn't laughing, but maybe he would be if he hadn't endured the same ordeal and wasn't grappling with dog. "Anyways," she continued, oblivious to the evil-death-rays-of-ultimate-death-with-lots-of-death he was giving her, "I think we got off on the wrong foot. My name's Kairi, this here's Axel and Demyx, and that's my dog, Pluto, who knocked you into the fountain." Bitchbitchbitch. She didn't have to draw more attention to the fact that his hair and clothes were sodden. Well, if her dog was an evil sadist, Kairi was too. "And is this your girlfriend?"

"Hell no!" exclaimed Selphie, a glint of amusement in her eyes, pretending to back away. "I baby-sit him and his little sister, but I can't keep an eye on him all the time. My name's Selphie."

'_Fuck! Selphie! Have you turned into an evil sadist bitch too? I don't want you turning into Kairi!_' Roxas inwardly yelled, as he mouthed 'traitor' at the grinning brunette, who either didn't see or didn't care.

"Oh, well, Axel's still got hopes that you really are gay and were checking him out yesterday then," replied Kairi with a happy little giggle that was poisoned with the look of a demon on her face, a dull 'thunk' in the background accompanying her words as Demyx finally managed to get the dog out of the fountain and promptly fell over.

"D'aw! He's so cute and adorable!" cried Selphie, running forwards towards Pluto, bending down to stroke the dog, who instantly responded by flipping on it's back, letting her tickle him. Now she didn't really care about the conversation, it was obvious, as long as she had something to pet and stroke. Selphie really needed a boyfriend, thought Roxas. He scowled, that was just what Kairi was implying about _him_. That he, Roxas, needed a boyfriend.

Axel looked the blonde boy up and down in his complete state of shame and bedraggled-ness after his unwanted bath in the fountain, and _that_ was the reason why his cheeks were hotting up and he was blushing, he told himself. _That_ was the reason, not that he was attracted to him in any way and wanted to look his best in front of him. He was just humiliated and embarrassed. Because he was looking at him when he wasn't his best and wanted to look good.

'_Screw you brain, stop trying to mess with my mind. I. Am. Not. Gay_,' he mentally told himself angrily, and his brain protested as two halves of him argued over … over his sexual preferences. At least both parts agreed it was Kairi's fault. The idea of taking something sharp and pointy to her didn't seem to be like a bad idea right about now.

"Hi," waved Axel in what seemed to be a simple gesture, somehow making something inside Roxas flip, a gleam in his eyes. Roxas tried to blot out Kairi's sniggering, Demyx's moans his clothes were soaked and he would kill Pluto and Selphie's delighted giggles.

He wanted to focus on Axel and Axel's voice, as he choked out some sort of 'hi' that came out sounding like he gargled with glass every day. Fuck.

"C'mon, Pluto," said Kairi brightly, the dog instantly responding to sound of it's mistress calling his name, as the great form of the dog jumped up loyally to her side, as Selphie pouted a little and turned her attention to Demyx instead, starting to chat about a band she liked. Really, the dog came first in Selphie's mind, then human beings, because they weren't as cute as the 'thing' that tried to eat half of Destiny Island's under 5's population. "We better get going," she said in a sweet voice that didn't make her seem like an evil bitch but more of a sweet angel, and Roxas nearly gagged, as Axel and Demyx turned their attention to Kairi.

No, Roxas wanted to cry to the red-headed man, stay here, I want to talk with you, find out more about you, kiss y- No, no I don't, STUPID BRAIN! He mentally thwacked himself, as Selphie giggled at Kairi.

"See you 'round!" she said brightly, and Kairi responded in a similar way, turning with her dog and her two friends as they walked off.

"Kairi seemed nice, huh?" asked Selphie with a smile, grinning as she twisted a lock of her brunette hair idly around one finger, as if deep in thought, obvious not meaning to add salt to Roxas' wounds and damage his pride even more by bringing up the fountain-incident again.

"Yeah – _nice_," snarled Roxas angrily, sluicing water off his shirt, creating small puddles at his feet, in thought of his own. He was thinking how 'nice' somebody seemed, but it was a male person and it was intended more deeply than that. In a way that sent alarm bells ringing in his mind.

However, he become momentarily distracted from his sad, emo musings of what a strange individual he was as he saw a piece of paper flutter to the ground. He tilted his head curiously, and bent to pick it up. And when he saw what was on it, he gasped.

**-x-x-x-**

_End notes: This is longer than what I usually write, and way longer than the beginning, so I feel proud . Stayed up very late to write this and I updated it quickly because I had an idea and wanted to put it down. Done in a rush so there will probably be grammar mistakes and the like I can't be bothered to hunt for right about now. Pluto _is_ evil XD. I know Naminé is OOC but she's a kid version of herself so maybe she's more hyper younger . The kids playing in the fountain are inspired by the park near where I live where people throw rubbish in and beer bottles yet the kids still play there. Can you guess what's on the paper? And I love everybody who reviewed last time – its more reviews than I usually get . Please review this chapter too! I'll give you cookies! I may no update in a while._


	3. o3 : curl up and die

-.**G**ood **M**orning _Sunshine_.-

Chapter Three.

.curl up and die.

**-x-x-x-**

The last happy verses of the song played around in the boys' ears, mingled with Naminé's excited cries. She always did love to see her brother, and her young mind couldn't comprehend why he shot her such a look of distaste. Her large blue eyes in shades that matched his perfectly to prove to the world that they were related looked slightly confused. She wasn't sure why he was so wet, either, and she drew away from her embrace hastily, making noises of disgust as she wiped her wet hands on her dress.

Roxas took his chance, as he tried to make his way past her, but she didn't want to give in so easily. Not until she had melted his mind with the goings-on in the '_The Little Mermaid_' at last. So she chased after him, no small feat as she was so small for her age, attempting to keep up with his footsteps.

"Roxas, Roxas, the movie was sooo cool, even mummy liked it!" she gushed delightedly like she was some sort of 'lady-high-and-mighty' film critic. Not a very good one – the boy was sure that 'mummy' hadn't been watching it out of love for the animated Disney characters, but for Naminé's sake. And she had probably been on her mobile phone the whole time. Sometimes it seemed that no force on earth, not even death or unexpected loss of limb, could keep Rikku off the phone chatting animatedly to Yuna and Paine. "'An there were a load of cool songs and Ursula was there and I didn't like her and she stole Ariel's voice and that was sad because then the prince didn't think she was the girl who saved him and then they had to kiss each other but the … things … stopped them and Ursula turned into this pretty girl – but she still wasn't that pretty – and tried to m…mash him and she lied but then he m… ma… mashed Ariel and that was good and they kissed and it was funny at the end," concluded the girl.

Dear God.

How the hell Naminé had said all of that with any stops or breathing was a mystery to Roxas. And he pretty sure the word she was searching for in her very limited vocabulary was 'married', not 'mashed'. However, if Ariel got mashed that wouldn't be too much of a tragedy. It would mean he wouldn't have to suffer his poor ears bleeding from the pure drivel the young girl told him about it. He had been explained the plot several times before in the past and he didn't want history to repeat itself.

"Yeah, that's nice, Nam," he said in a non-committal voice, realising after while she was waiting for a reply and wouldn't stop following him like an annoying shadow until she had one. "Say, why don't you go down and … uh … Go and watch it again. I need to make a phone call."

"To Selphee? Is she gunna come and baby-sit me some more so I can tell _her_ about the movie? It's really, really good, Roxas!" she exclaimed happily. To some she would have looked cute, clutching an Ariel stuffed toy from her mountainous collection of Disney crap, blue eyes wide. But to Roxas she was just a headache.

"No," replied Roxas through gritted teeth, hoping she'd understand the evil tone in his voice and curl up and die somewhere. "It's … a friend, OK? Now go and watch your movie, I won't be doing anything interesting, I'll just be on the phone."

"Is it your girlfriend?" inquired Naminé, hugging the Ariel stuffed toy affectionately, bending her turquoise tail back at an impossible angle. If the mermaid had been real she would have been screaming in agony right now.

Roxas sometimes wished he could shoot lasers from his eyes and disintergrate any annoying life-form that dared cross his path. He should make a list of all the people he wanted to murder just in-case he did become involved in some accident involving radiating green gloop and chemical X like the Powerpuff Girls. One of Naminé's favourite shows. It contained music that could rival the ice-cream theme tune in gayness and annoyingness.

"No."

"Oh, okay, then! Hey," she paused in her descent down the stairs, pretending to be examining an interesting picture in which Roxas knocked down a Lego castle she had constructed. Ah, brother and sisterly love. "Can we bake cookies later on? Pwease! PWEASE!" she fluttered her eyelashes imploringly.

"No."

He was going to change his wet clothes and then he was going to make a phone call and Naminé was going to fall down a flight of stairs. Hopefully.

o.x.o

The girl hummed to herself, not exactly sure what she was humming, but she knew it had to be something related to death or murder. That was all she listened to, anyway. One day she would be a professional singer she told herself, the ringing of the phone a lovely back-drop noise, as she strode towards the annoying plastic contraption that dared interfere with her pretty music.

"Hello?" she asked, picking it up after the third ring – she counted.

"Um… Hello… Who's this?" asked a rather confused voice on the other end of the line, causing the girl to tut and roll her eyes. Really, some idiot phoned her up and then didn't even know who he was calling. Sometimes it seemed she was the only smart person who was created in the universe. On times she thought about this is made her rather depressed, though. She didn't really trust anybody else to run the land.

"This is Sally," she answered in bright tones.

"Oh, right… Does Axel live here?" asked the voice, causing her to sigh. Every time the phone rang it was usually that annoying Demyx boy or that … Kairi girl wanting to see her brother. It would be a miracle if anybody ever wanted to speak to her for a change.

"No, he just went out. I'm his sister," she answered, humming that tune again. She had definitely heard it before. Perhaps on some T.V. show or something.

"Oh, well, alright," replied the boy on the other line. "I guess I better be going now…"

"Yes, you better," responded the girl in happy tones that were rather forced, as she slammed the phone down, cutting him off and preventing him from poisoning her mind any further. She was a nice person, really, but using telephones made her edgy. It could be any weirdo talking to her – she didn't like not being able to see a face to the speaker.

And then it hit her, making her shudder. She had been humming the 'Powerpuff Girls' theme tune. Really, life wasn't worth living anymore, she thought glumly. She really needed somebody to talk to other than Axel or odd people phoning up for Axel.

x.o.x.

Rikku couldn't cook. Naminé couldn't cook. Roxas sure as hell couldn't cook. So why were the two women of the family insisting on making cookies? Disaster could only shortly follow, and Naminé would only end up being wheeled in to casualty with a spatula jammed into one eye or with numerous pieces of her set on fire. Rikku would be sobbing hysterically and wondering why she ever tried to seriously make something edible in the first place, all the while telling Yuna and Paine about it. Because the death of a family member wasn't enough to pry her away from her mobile. She even tried to tell Paine about something funny that had happened to her in the market at a child's christening. Roxas forgot who it was for but he remembered the vicar was very angry indeed at the airy laughter interrupting his 'inspiring' speech. Roxas had wanted to bury his head in the sand – if there was any sand – like an emu. Or was it an ostrich?

"Um… What are you doing?" asked Roxas pointedly, looking at the sad sight before him. It featured Naminé and Rikku covered in a suit of some sort of mixture that was meant to magically produce cookies. It was rather strange how it smelt of rat poison – or something equally as bad for the digestive system. The Grim Reaper would be going on holiday to Jamaica with singing mice before Rikku managed to cook something edible.

"Making cookies, Roxas!" cried Naminé happily. "And mummy's asking Aunty Yuna for the recipe on the phone now! No fair, I wanna tell her some more about Ariel!"

Yes. Roxas was sure his mother really wanted to hear her gremlin child blabber on about the animated show – maybe that was why she had started baking cookies with her in the first place. To make her shut up about Flounder and Sebastian – or, as Naminé had lovingly dubbed them, Fun-der and Sub-ass-tea-on. Bless her soul.

"Do you want to help?" asked Rikku, tearing herself away from her beloved piece of technology for five seconds to ask him for a prominent question. Then she was back to Yuna, chattering on about how stupid men were. As if she was really asking for a cookie recipe – she didn't care enough about baking.

A look of pure, un-diluted horror passed across Roxas' eyes, as he backed away slowly. "No thanks, I … gotta … er … Go outside … And … Er … Do something, OK?"

What a pathetic excuse. Well, at least it worked.

o.x.o

Roxas, having succeeded in managing to escape from the house, now had completely no idea as to what to do. And he didn't bring his mobile because Naminé had tried to 'feed' it to the goldfish, Donald and Goofy, a few weeks ago. And for the record, metal and water did not mix. Rikku didn't really care as long as it wasn't her phone swimming in the briny deep confines of the tank. She didn't even care how badly it had disturbed the fish – they were now dead from the multiple electric shocks that had been coursing around their small fishy bodies. They needed some new fish.

So Roxas, in a state of not knowing what to do, decided to go and see if Selphie was in. She would like his sudden company when they had just parted ways about half an hour ago. All his other friends were rich enough to be able to go on holiday during the summer.

After a long walk around the numerous lanes and paths that circled the islands, he finally made his way towards Selphie's brightly painted house in various shades of pale peach and pastel. Nearly houses in Destiny Islands were painted to these colour schemes, however, garnished with various seagull droppings.

He knocked on the door, hoping she was in. He needed somebody to talk to or else he would have to face the shame of walking around by himself looking pathetic and alone. Well, that would beat watching Rikku and Naminé happily and merrily blow up the house.

After a few seconds of mooching around on the doorstep, his wish was granted and the door was answered by … somebody he hoped never to meet again, without the aid of a pointy butcher knife or that chemical X induced laser vision.

"Oh… Hello… Riku…"

Yes, the figure answering the door was none other than the wonderfully cocky, self-centred bastard. He couldn't quite understand why he was Selphie's friend out of all the teenagers on Destiny Islands. He constantly boasted about himself and his 'heroic' achievements, like the time he put his hand in the toaster while it was turned on or scored five goals in a game of Blitzball with Wakka. Well, putting your hand in the toaster, as far as Roxas was concerned, was just plain stupid, and scoring five goals against Wakka was something that Naminé could probably do whilst hopping around with a blindfold on. And he thought his silver-blue hair was cool, but in truth Roxas thought it made him look like a girl or an old man gone a bit wrong with too many muscles. To add to the list, his attire was … unusual. The pants clipped onto pants and large clown shoes just helped complete his 'unique' look.

"Why are you here?" he asked Roxas in a grumpy voice, seeming ready to slam Selphie's – not his, by any accounts – door in his face. It was trick Roxas used constantly with Naminé, and he placed a foot in the doorway, preventing it from closing. Even if it meant it hurt a lot and he had to be graced with the clown's face for longer than he thought was necessary for a person who wasn't blind.

"I wanted to speak with Selphie," he said in cold tones. He and Riku had gone way back – he was always the popular one at Kindergarten who stole other kids' juice and ripped the heads of dolls to look cool. He was always the one at school who laughed at Roxas' hair – when his own was far more ridiculous – and pushed him over. And for reason in the present age he was his Chemistry partner. Damn. Roxas really wanted to murder 'Professor' Vexen when that decision had been made. "Selphie is in, isn't she?" Either that or Riku had jumped through the window uninvited and eaten her. Roxas didn't put it past him. It would probably make him more 'cool' in the eyes of his friends.

"Yeah, she's in. She invited me and Sora round to try out a new game she got. She also told me about that incident in the park today where you fell into the fountain," snickered the weird boy before Roxas, Sora's voice calling after Riku to hurry up and answer the damned door, to confirm his story.

Roxas blushed slightly – Selphie was a traitor. She knew how much he disliked Riku and his stupid hair and stupid pants and stupid 'putting-hand-into-toaster' habits and his stupid attempts to blow up Roxas in Chemistry. Hopefully he'd get a new partner when he went back to school after the holiday.

"Yeah," continued Clown-man. They could make a T.V. series out of almighty Clown-man and his vast adventures through toasters and Blitzball. It would be something Naminé would like if it had the right music and Ariel doing a cameo appearance. "And she also told me about the guy you have a crush on… Axel?"

'_FUCK. She did not tell you that, she did not, lalalala, I can rise above_ it,' thought Roxas darkly. '_I will not stoop to Clown-man's level and punch him in the face. Wait, that sounds tempting…_'

"RIKU! How long does it take to open a fucking door!" cried Selphie's voice, as Roxas heard footsteps and a loud bang, as the door was flung open to reveal the hyper, happy girl. "Oh, right, it's you. Riku was probably intimidating you with his large biceps or shoes or something," she said with an eye-roll. "Hehe, I don't get boys. Anyway, get lost Riku, go upstairs and taunt Sora. ROXAS!" she said delightedly, grinning as Clown-man skulked away with a murderous look on his face. "Do you wanna come in? It's been … Oh, ten seconds since I last saw you at the park? Hehe, can't keep away from me! And, hey, hey, you know Kairi? Well, Sora knows her too. Apparently they've been childhood friends for a long time, funny he never mentioned her before. Well, he probably did, but I forgot about it. Do you like games? Ha, I mean playstation games? I would have invited you around but you never answered your mobile."

"That was because Naminé dropped it in the fish-tank," said Roxas, attempting to get a word in edge-ways through Selphie's seemingly never-ending chatter. Obviously she had taken it for granted that Roxas did want to go in, ignoring his protests and shoving him through the door-way. Roxas didn't like Riku, Riku didn't like Roxas, and that was the way it would always be. He didn't care that Selphie kept telling him he wasn't that bad really and was rather nice – albeit a little self-conceited – when you got to know him. Probably because he never tried to erode her skin with some weird-coloured acid-based liquid in Chemistry when Vexen's back was turned.

"Oh, yeah, yeah," responded Selphie, pushing him up the stairs in a mad, hyper rush, leaving him no escape route, unless he wanted to charge up and jump out of the window into the girl's mother's prized rose patch. Life was very, very cruel, he decided sadly. So, as an alternative to getting blown up in cookie dough at home he was going to get blown up by Riku's massive shoes and fists at Selphie's house instead. He could never win. "So, how are the fish? Donald and Goofy, hehe!"

"… A piece of electronic equipment dropped into their water tank. How would you be?" asked Roxas in a dull voice, as Selphie opened her bedroom door and shoved him inside her dominantly yellow room.

"Dead?" asked Selphie with an innocent blink of her eyes, as she slammed the door behind her, the noise signifying to Roxas that he was under Riku's radar and he was as good as dead. Like the fish. Poor Donald and Goofy, may they rest in peace as their corpses flow down the sewer. Roxas would have liked to go down the toilet too, at the look of pure malevolence Riku was giving him. It seemed today would be the fateful day Riku finally carried out his murder plans. He had a lot of issues. "Hey, hey, everybody! This is Roxas!"

"I know," said Sora, grinning like an idiot as he un-paused the weird sort of army game they had been playing before Roxas interrupted them. It seemed to contain a lot of aimlessly shooting people – Jesus only knew what possessed Selphie to buy it. Maybe being Riku's friend had destroyed her fragile brain. "Kairi told me about a weird gay guy she met a while ago and I figured it would be you," he said in an absent-minded voice, not seeming to realise what he had said. However, seeing Roxas' evil face, the boy quickly tried to rectify what he had said. "Oh, not because you look … weird … and … gay … But because she described you – yeah. She said you looked like me," he said hastily, gun-shots and shouting and falling corpses accompanying his kind words from the game. Riku had gone into a murderous killing rampage around Chicago. "You know how everybody at school's confusing me and you. Ha."

Selphie pouted, as she picked up her control pad and promptly shot Sora whilst he was consoling Roxas that he did not look weird or gay, who moaned unhappily and crossed his arms with a pout on his face. Selphie merely smirked, as Roxas stood uneasily in the door-way, seeming to have been forgotten about as everybody became engrossed in the game. He sighed, and sat uneasily on the ground next to Selphie, who was happily shooting the hell out of anybody who dared cross her. Bang – a mother and a baby had bullets impaled in their head, making Roxas shudder at the copious amounts of fake blood that spewed from the holes around their carcasses.

"So, Riku," said Sora in a good-natured voice, yawning at a loss of what to do since he was dead – in the game, obviously. "Have you done any of your Maths homework?"

"No," said Riku brightly, talking about mundane things like schoolwork whilst shooting random people. Bang, bang, bang, more dead bodies crumpled to the floor, fading away into relevant plot-holes. Roxas really despised this game – and for some reason it seemed to be playing a remixed version of Little Mermaid's '_Part of Your World_' whilst innocent people died needlessly.

"Oh… I'm worried about these questions, see, because I think I fell asleep when Quistis was explaining them… I had a nice dream, though. It was something about a weird boy kind of like me with a large key killing these dark monster things. I won, obviously. They should make a game like that," he said brightly, eyes fixed on the bloodbath before him without even squirming. "Maybe it should be called something like '_Kingdom of Hearts_'. And it could have Ariel singing," he said happily, obviously picking up on the strange music playing in the fighting game that made Roxas cringe.

"No. If they made that into a game it should be called '_Kingdom Hearts_'" said Riku dully. "And you could be the hero and I'd be the weird guy that gets eaten up by darkness and turns into Ansem the Physics teacher. He'd be a good evil guy. And Roxas … you'd be the guy in love with Axel who dies later on because you're Sora's twin or nobody or something."

Roxas realised at that moment Riku really didn't like him to resort to trying to kill him in some stupid game that didn't even exist. Oh well – at least Riku got to turn into the scary Physics teacher.

"It sounds like a load of crap," said Roxas dully.

"Only because you're not a real character, you're just part of Sora. And Naminé would be your girlfriend," sniggered Riku, as he killed a few more people, making his way closer to Selphie. "But you'd really love Axel."

"I do not love my sister in any way, shape or form," growled Roxas angrily, sniggering as Selphie jumped out of a bush and shot Riku in the head to the merry remixed version of '_Under the Sea_' or something that sounded equally as annoying.

Selphie grinned, as she picked up another controller that had wedged itself between folders of homework somehow, handing it to Roxas. "OK, you can play and you can kill some people now. Just pretend they're all Riku and you'll do fine."

And with those helpful pieces of advice, Roxas actually managed to find the game rather amusing indeed.

**-x-x-x-**

_A/N: Heh, sorry if I didn't get round to replying to your reviews last time, I was at a friends' house. And she gave some funny ideas for this story . Like Riku and Sora's talk of a game being produced called 'Kingdom Hearts'. Of course, nobody will make a game like that, will they? Yeah, Sally will become very significant in the plot. And it was obvious what was on the paper because it's obvious who phoned up a very annoyed Sally. No, I do not hate the Powerpuff girls, Ariel or Riku. But it's so much fun to be mean to the stupid kid XD. Who has large feet and strange hair. Yes, RIKKU (FFX-2) is Roxas' mother. Hmn. So who's the father? Seriously, I don't know yet XD. HOW ABOUT CID? So, anyway, please review, I'll try to respond to them all! I have not read it throught for speellink mistooks._


	4. o4 : just point and laugh

-.**G**ood **M**orning _Sunshine_.-

Chapter Four.

.just point and laugh.

**-x-x-x-**

"_What do you do when you're scared?" asked the girl quietly, the rough bark of the tree beneath her scratching her legs. She was staring absent-mindedly out to sea, the waves crashing roughly around the small isle they were occupying. She was counting to pass the time – counting the rumbling sounds of thunder echoing away in the distance. There was going to be a storm, but she didn't really care – she was a child and didn't understand that they probably should be at home. Storms didn't scare her – she liked the thunder and lightening and the rain and the wind._

"_I … dunno…" answered the boy softly, his voice barely carrying over the ominous sounds. One one-thousand, one two-thousand, one three-thousand, BANG. It was coming closer, the wind blowing their hair roughly. He thought of all the times he had been scared. It was funny – most of those times centered around Sally in some way or another. Not because she was scary, but because … She never seemed to be exactly … She wasn't normal… She was badly injured after falling out of a window a few days ago. And two people in a family weren't enough. Their parents were always away on business meetings and Sally was three years older than him so she and the occasional babysitter took care of him. And if something serious happened to Sally he wouldn't really have any family to turn to. His parents didn't care about them enough._

"_I like watching the storms," she said, getting up from the tree, turning her head to look at the yellow fruit hanging from the branches, her hair glistening with the rain water. "They're … pretty, you know? They stop me being afraid… I know that sounds strange." One one thousand, one two thousand, BANG. Getting closer and closer._

"_No, not really," replied the boy, looking up at the sky. It was angry, dark and swirling around. It didn't look like the sort of thing somebody would look to so they wouldn't feel afraid – it didn't look like the sort of thing that would comfort somebody._

"_No, but the weather's always there. Always. It never gives in," smiled his friend, the conflicting colours reflecting in her eyes. They looked red. Like blood. One one thousand, BANG. Closer and closer. It didn't seem to worry her in the slightest._

"_I think we better go now… The storm'll come over the island and our boats will get thrown into the rocks at sea. C'mon," he said, but she shook her head, and he found it hard to say no to her. They were friends, and if she wanted to stay then he figured he had to stay with her. But they could get hurt, and friends weren't meant to let each other be harmed either. He chewed his bottom lip worriedly. What if something happened? Nobody knew they were even there._

"_You worry too much," she said with a laugh. Saying something like that obviously angered the storm and provoked it – it was far greater than the stupid little girl._

_There was no counting needed this time. The storm was over the island, and there was a bang, and a scream, a loud scream. And then it stopped, a dull thud being heard as a head hit the ground with a sickening crack. And it didn't matter how many times he shook her because it was obvious she wouldn't be getting up again. So he had to run. Sometimes he felt bad, because friends were meant to stick together._

_It was ironic that something she claimed to make her feel better when she was sad had been the thing that killed her._

o.x.o

"Wake up, Axel!" cried a chipper voice, shoving him roughly in the shoulder, making him blink, yawning slightly. The first thing he noticed was how weird Sally looked before she brushed her hair in the morning. It sort of looked a bit like his now – all stuck up in various angles. It suited her, thought Axel with approval, because if everybody wore their hair like his the world would be a much happier place. Or something like that… He had no idea what he was thinking, really, because it was too early in the morning to be woken up by an annoying sister. It was too early in the morning to even classify as 'morning' in Axel's language.

"Wha'?" he responded, sounding amazingly smart in his 'i-want-to-go-back-to-bed' voice, that would be best left not described as it sounded like a bear being strangled.

"It's a lovely day, the sun is shining, the birds are singing!" declared Sally merrily, her voice cutting into him like a chainsaw, making him want to throw a pillow – full of rocks – at her. But that was far too childish an action for the 'great Axel' to do, so he contented himself with trying to ignore her highly caffeine-ated voice. "And it's so beautiful I think I'm going to sing! Tra la la la la la!"

Fuck. Axel moaned, shook off any remnants of sleep, and launched himself at his sister, attempting to hit her with his pillow that was sadly rock-free. And it never even got anywhere near her, anyway, as she stepped back, making him tumble out of bed in an undignified heap. "Sallywhatthefuckgetlooosstttt!" he moaned, proving he was not fit to talk too until he'd had his early-morning sugar rush and Dr. Pepper.

"Yay! You're awake," smiled Sally, reaching down to help Axel up, who stubbornly pushed her hand away, tried to get up, and fell over again. Very gracefully, of course, because he was Axel and he was always graceful. Unless it happened to be 7:23 a.m. and Sally was singing merrily. "Anyway, I knew my lovely voice would wake you up properly. So, that … Demyx … boy … annoying brat …" she hissed, "woke me up at 6:37 by ringing the damned phone asking if you wanted to go and get an ice-cream or something. Because we all know that ALL the shops are open at this hour and EVERYBODY who is SANE is obviously awake. I told him to fuck off," she grinned. "And that you'd go and see him at about 8. Okay?"

"Sally. Stop trying to control my personal life because you don't have one of your own!" yelled Axel angrily, picking up his pillow and throwing it at her, as it made contact with her face, making a delightful noise that was like music to his ears. It sounded better than her singing, at any rate.

"I'll have you know I have a **lot** of friends! I'm going out to see Emily later today," she declared brightly, backing away from Axel's room in case he tried to throw something more dangerous than a pillow at her next,

"The freaky freak who looks like she's crawled out of a grave? With all the blue hair?" he asked, wrinkling up his nose in distaste. "At least I hang out with friends who haven't signed their death warrants, Sally."

"Lalalala I'm not _listening_!" she sang, making her merry way to her room to comb her hair so it didn't look like she'd paid a visit to Axel's salon. She thought her brother needed a hair-cut, anyway. Not that she'd tell him that in fear of being thrown into the sea with multiple bricks tied to her feet.

x.o.x

"Guess what, Roxas?" asked Yuffie in happy tones that he deemed far too bright and happy for so early in the morning. That was surprising – he was usually greeted with a mental slap and a 'where the fuck were you, you're late.' But something had made her very happy today, obviously, judging by the way she had been singing animatedly to a song playing on the radio. It managed to morph into the ice-cream theme tune in Roxas' sleep-deprived brain, making him feel like stabbing himself or throwing a brick or a grand piano at the next passing stranger on the street. If he had a grand piano or a brick. Damn. His perfect plans, foiled by … something … and a lack of torture tools.

"Wha?" he asked, jamming on his stupid, stupid hat. Maybe he could stab somebody's eye out with the pointy corners of it he thought darkly, as he managed to impale his finger on it. It reminded him that life hated him and he should crawl in a grave and die. Hopefully before Riku blew him up with strange-smelling chemicals.

"I hired another person to work here! So now you can have a few more days off," she said happily. She was probably happy because she hated Roxas and wanted to get rid of him. It was all Rikku's fault he worked there anyway – she thought it was her role to teach him about earning his keep. Obviously Paine had told her that on the phone a few weeks ago. And Yuffie pressed play on the radio again, resuming her awful, awful rendition of some song that was being badly murdered. In cold blood. Roxas pitied the song and his ear-drums.

"So who's the new guy working here?" asked Roxas wearily, making his way behind the counter so he could resume another wonderfully fun day of sterilising ice-cream scoops.

"Hmn? Oh, a friend of a friend of a … cousin … I dunno, but the point is somebody said they'd be willing to work here," giggled Yuffie happily, styling her hair in the mirror. Roxas wondered idly what Yuffie actually _did_ in the store anyway, apart from manage its finances and harvest most of the money for her good self. Not there was that much that was good about her. Oh, and it was her name that was displayed on the sign outside. 'Yuffie's ice-cream parlour'. A very catchy and unique title. Roxas should take his (ridiculously gay) hat off to her for thinking up such a good name some time.

"Oh, right," replied Roxas lazily, stifling a yawn as he thought fondly of that nice 'kill-Riku' game had played yesterday at Selphie's house. Sora had looked surprised when he shot him several times, not that he had anything against Sora. Apart from the fact he obviously had no taste going out with Kairi, who was …

Who was standing right in front of him, actually, with a calculating smirk on her face.

"Hello, Roxas," she said evilly, prompting a 'crap' from the boy. "We do seem to keep running into each other recently, don't we?" she giggled, making Roxas scowl.

'_La la la, look at me Kairi, I'm being a big, strong boy and ignoring you. How does that make YOU feel? Huh? Huh? Huh? Bring it on, PUNK! I'm not listening to a word you say! Nope! I most definitely am not, hahahaha! Do your worst, oh, there's Demyx, I DON'T CARE! And there's Axel and … CRRAAAPPPP!_' Roxas thought, his grand plans of ignoring Kairi and her friends in ruins. He blamed Axel's stupid hair. Not that it was stupid… Kairi was stupid. Yes, that was it. And the odd hat Axel was wearing was stupid too, and … CRRRAAAPPP.

At least Axel looked as pissed off as he was.

o.x.o

"I think that was why Sally was so damned happy this morning. Because Demyx asked her if it would be OK if I worked here and she obviously said yes because she wants to make my life hell," growled Axel angrily, looking like he wanted to murder the little girl who had dropped her ice-cream cone and started crying loud enough to wake the dead. Or Emily – she classified for all the dead. "And she didn't give me the proper message – just said Demyx wanted me to come and get an ice-cream with him. Fuck, I thought Kairi was only an evil sadist to Demyx!"

Roxas knew the name Sally. It was the 'less-than-lovely' girl who had picked up the phone when he had tried to call Axel and he wasn't there. She didn't sound like a very good sister if she thought Demyx and Kairi's ideas were good. For it was obvious that – move over, Maleficent – Kairi was the new mistress of all evil. A title to be proud of, Roxas was sure. His title, according to Naminé as of this morning, was Clayton. Or maybe she had watched Tarzan and had been trying to describe the plot to him. He didn't really care, to be quite honest.

"Why didn't you just say that you didn't want to do it?" asked Roxas, feeling like he was going to pass out on the cold, hard floor from lack of sleep. Stupid, stupid Naminé and her assorted collection of Disney dolls that she had thrown at him to wake him up. Well, it worked – he had the bruises to prove it. She used the plastic ones. To cause maximum pain, obviously.

"Because Kairi said she'd give me some munny and if I didn't she'd make me walk her damned dog instead of Demyx," said Axel darkly, poking his hat like it was some sort of unexploded bomb, wincing as the sharp edge sliced into his finger.

"Yeah, you got to watch out for them," said Roxas dully, holding up his hands. He had been scarred for life from those damned hats, too. "It's just child cruelty. If something goes wrong, live by my personal rule and blame Yuffie."

"I'll remember that…" said Axel, his voice trailing off. Everybody was conspiring against him. Even his damned HAT was conspiring against him, if that was even possible. He poked it again, and came to the conclusion that yes, it was possible for a hat to conspire against you. Very possible. Painfully possible.

Roxas smiled, and turned his head as the happy little tinkling tune heralded the arrival of somebody else … In fact, quite a few people, that he had taken great delight in killing yesterday.

Selphie, Sora and … the horror that walks the earth in the guise or Ri-ku, more formally known to his enemies (and he had plenty of those) as Clown-man. Cue thunder and lightening crashing.

"If I have to listen to that damned tune one more time I'm gonna RAWR," said Axel quietly, feeling like soothing his anger by setting something on fire, preferably the hat. Or having Roxas say something funny or smiling – that might make him feel better. Hopefully. Because Clown-man sure wasn't going to, he soon realised, as the clown guffawed and pointed at Roxas with mirth etched onto his face, looking like a yokel.

"Huh huh huh," he grunted. "This is funnier than the time I stole your cookie in Kindergarten and the time I tied your shoelaces together and the time you fell over Sora and … wait, I didn't bring the pain upon you that time. Oh well, this is still very, very, very amusing! Huh huh huh! Hilarious, if you will!"

Axel's eye twitched involuntarily. He'd just found a new target to set on fire. He probably knew that kid and his friends from school somewhere. Well, Roxas certainly seemed to know him. And how dare that clown/yokel/big-foot/pant-clipped-over-pant-man/bastard dare insult Roxas like that! In an ice-cream parlour, of all places, where any little kid could be watching – not that they were.

"Riku, SHUT UP!" yelled Selphie in annoyance. "Go and insult some pigeons outside with your large feet or muscles or something. Roxas is my friend, dummy!"

Ah. So 'R-I-K-U' was the name of the brat. Well, he would form some elaborate plan involving an ice-pick and a biscuit and humiliate him in front of everybody one day. One happy, happy, happy day over the rainbow.

"But he looks so stoooopid!" guffawed Riku, making Roxas cringe. Even Sora didn't find it amusing anymore, and that was odd.

Roxas felt like stabbing Riku in the face with an ice-cream cone, but Axel, however, was several steps ahead of him, as he picked up a scoop of the frozen treat and hurled it with expert aim into the mindless drone's face. That shut him up.

"That'll be five munny please," said Axel in a bright voice laced with pure evil, as Selphie, Sora and Roxas laughed and Riku snorted, trying to look dignified. Although any scraps of respect he may have had quickly melted with blue gunge on his face, as Selphie hopped forwards in her chipper way – yes, you CAN walk in a chipper way if you're called Selphie Tilmitt – and willingly gave Axel the munny.

"And I'll give you some more if you'll hit him in the face again for being such a heartless bastard," she smiled brightly.

"I … need … some … paper … napkins," said Riku darkly, as he stalked off to the bathroom, prompting more giggles from Sora. Roxas found this strangely disturbing, because it was a rather high-pitched girly giggle, but he guessed that was just Sora's 'thing' and it was best not to question it. The truth may be very disturbing.

"So, why did you guys come here? To mock me?" asked Roxas in a tired, resigned voice. "Just so you know, people have insulted my hat so often I could stab myself with it. Infact, that's not a bad idea. It's pointy enough."

Axel looked at Roxas curiously. "Uh, Roxas, I dealt with Clown-man, he won't be bothering you any more. Unless of course he's really, really annoying and keeps showing up like evil characters you're meant to hate do in bad fanfiction. In my mind I see a game called _Kingdom Heartless_ where a guy called Riku keeps appearing trying to kill the main character that should be called Sora because it sounds right."

Sora gave him a rather disturbed look. "Hey, I thought about making up a game like that! Wow! That's really cool!"

"And you call Riku Clown-man too…" said Roxas brightly to Axel, not feeling so depressed anymore, as said 'thing' emerged from the boys' bathrooms – although it may have been the girls', nobody was quite sure at the time – with a face now ice-cream free and peachy-clean. He had his evil look back as well. Roxas idly wondered if he carried around an 'evil look' with him in a handbag and could re-powder it on his face whenever he wanted to. An alternative to blusher that would frighten the hell out of anybody.

"I think we should go," said the 'thing' that was obviously sulking now having being treated to the mouthful of unwanted ice-cream. "Let's leave them to be alone together," he said darkly, wanting to get in a few more digs about Roxas while he had the chance.

"Spoilsport! I never got my ice-cream, s'not fair that **you** did!" said Selphie, poking 'it' with a finger angrily, making 'it' shoot an annoyed look at the shorter girl. "**AND** I paid for yours, you ungrateful scrounger! Stealing my good munny!"

Sora appeared to be several miles away, staring fixatedly at Roxas' hat like it was about to come alive with a battle cry of 'DEEEMONS!' and eat everybody. It reminded him of Wakka's hair – he always had to look at that whenever he saw it to check the spike wasn't really a life-form attached to his head ready to kill everybody.

"Fine, fine, we'll get you a damned ice-cream and go, alright?" grunted 'it' in annoyance, as 'it' marched back to the counter, using 'it's' munny this time to pay for two ice-creams of Selphie's choice – because she insisted Sora's favourite flavour was hers' and she'd eat it anyway if he didn't want it.

Sora was staring at the hat, still not sure whether it would stalk him in his dreams in the form of a heartless or not. Yes, the idea of a game called _Kingdom of Hearts_ was a truly cool idea.

And so 'it' took the ice-creams from Roxas and handed them to Selphie, and 'it' made it way to the door, flanked by 'it's' minions. But not before 'it' slipped on thin-air and fell back, cracking 'it's' head on the cold, unforgiving, merciless floor.

And Axel, Roxas, Selphie and Sora proceeded to laugh at 'it'. And 'it' was very annoyed indeed.

**-x-x-x-**

_A/N: Yay! A very fast update… Yes… My friend forced me to write it. It's good having somebody read what you're writing because you can tell how good 'it' is from the amount of laughs you get. The beginning is angst, not humour, but it's relevant to the plot… Guess who the two kids are, I DARE YOU. Haha. Chicken. So, anyway, the Rikuyokel reference refers to a large inside joke: "Some folk'll never turn into Ansem, but then again some folk'll, like Riku the Jamaican yokel!" And why he's Jamaican? He spoke to Wakka too much. Yes, we all have unhealthy obsessions with Wakka's demon hair. This was a HAPPY ending chapter, but that will change soon .. Anyway, please read and review and you get … a … TRIANGLE! Yes, my dear friends (?) a TRIANGLE. Thank ye and bye byes! Will be updated when this chapter gets at least four reviews ._


	5. o5 : i hate you dad

-.**G**ood **M**orning _Sunshine_.-

.Chapter Five.

.i hate you dad.

**-x-x-x-**

If the girl had been any good at art in some way, shape or form then Roxas might have said her colourful stick-people mural on the cream walls of the hallway were very good and bright and cheerful. She was, however, Naminé and had happily spent the last half hour of his departure by doodling something very scary that towered above everybody else who dared enter the house. Rikku either didn't notice or didn't care as she was talking to 'Aunty Paine' – not a real aunt like Yuna, but she insisted they call her that after she let Rikku borrow her car – about ... something. And their dad, Tidus was probably passed out like some sort of living log upstairs after his night-shifts. Roxas wasn't exactly sure what he did, but it was common knowledge no teenage boy really gave a damn about their family affairs.

"Roxas, look at the pretty picutar I drew! Mummy said I was good at … aut … art … when I drew a picutue so I decided to draw a bug piece of art on the wall!" she declared proudly, brandishing her wax crayons like some sort of monster. Roxas backed away, not wanting to be stabbed in the eye with a 'Halloween-time orange' crayon. It would be a sad death indeed.

"Naminé, I can't help looking at it, it's so beautiful…" said Roxas nervously, and that was partly the truth. For the immense 'picutar' or 'picutue' that adorned the walls was so huge and truly bad that anybody's eyes were immediately drawn to it. It was rather captivating in a scary sort of way – it look like the stick-girl was in danger of eating the stick-man who was several inches shorter than her. "How did you manage to get all the way up there?" he finally asked, realising it was impossible for her reach up there with her tiny arms.

"I piled my toys up and some pillows an' stuff," she explained simply, pointing simply at the large pile of junk next to her that her brother hadn't noticed at first. The big scary picture on the wall sort of drew in all attention and made it impossible to look away. "It wasn't easy – I fell from the pile a coupl'a times. It hurt."

"Does mum know about this?" asked Roxas slowly, backing away further and further up the stairs, praying to some almighty deity that Rikku would not choose this exact moment to walk in and scream the house down. Then she would ask, scatter-brain that she was, why Roxas didn't try to pry the crayons from her hands, and he would say he was at work. She would go 'oh' and then make him clean it all up anyway because she needed at least five seconds on her phone talking to Paine some more.

"I'll go tell her," the blonde idiot smiled brightly, running off as fast as her feet would carry her – which wasn't very fast, really – to declare to the world that she, Naminé, had vandalised her home. Very artistically, she may add. Really, the stick-figures weren't so large and 'rawr' if your eyes became accustomed to them.

Roxas bolted up the stairs to make a hasty get-away, but not before he heard a loud scream, just as he had predicted, and Rikku's voice yelling: "ROXAS! Get down here right now!"

Like a man resigned to the gallows, Roxas slunk back downstairs, idly wondering how Tidus managed to sleep through all the general family noise – or maybe he was dead and nobody realised because he never said that much anyway. The larger part of him, however, was worrying about what Rikku was going to punish him with. Maybe watching '_the Little Mermaid_' several times with Naminé with a free audio commentary. This included a young girl shouting 'this is a really cool bit, no wait, it's the next one, hehehehe' and 'Roxas sing along with this song pleeeaasseee'.

"How could you let her do that to my lovely house?" cried Rikku angrily. She was probably only angry because she had been forced to say goodbye to Paine, telling her hurriedly she'd call her back in oh, about five seconds. "You just sat there and watched her do this – this abomination!"

"I was at work," said Roxas dully, figuring that at least it had a few good points. It meant he had a ready-made excuse if anything went wrong, Axel – who was just a FRIEND – worked there now, and it was funny to see Clown-man staggering around with ice-cream plastered on his face.

"What does 'abominayshun' mean, mummy?" asked Naminé with a curious look playing around her features. "Does it mean pretty? 'Cause I think it's pretty. Its Roxas an' Selphee sittin' in a tree, K-I-S… Z… B-U-G," she sang, obviously unaware she had spelt 'kiszbug' instead of 'kissing'. He felt a wave of sympathy for her future boyfriend. If she ever got one, obviously.

Rikku looked very flustered, as she ran a hand through her honey-coloured hair, the numerous coloured beads clinking together like wind chimes. "Oh… Right… It means 'lovely', Naminé. It's beautiful." And then she hissed to Roxas through the side of her mouth, "Go and get the chemicals."

Roxas idly wondered if they were going to feed Naminé battery acid, but his happy dreams were squashed flat when Rikku quickly said: "The cleaning stuff to … clean … the wall, y'know..."

In response, the boy nodded, and began the happy hunt for 'spot-the-chemicals'.

o.x.o

After a while of aimlessly walking around the house tugging at drawers and then swearing at them when they adamantly refused to open – he guessed because they contained chemicals and other objects Rikku didn't want Naminé to eat when she was bored – he eventually lost his patience.

The small cabinet in the bathroom under the stairs would probably house something to remove wax crayon from the wall, as it was common knowledge plain water and a sponge wouldn't remove it. And Naminé had layered on the coloured wax so it stood on the pale paper several inches thick.

Roxas gave it another swift kick when it just stood there, taunting him with its 'cabinet-ness' in all it's un-opening glory. And then he howled in pain and clutched his foot, realising that had to be the worst plan he'd ever come up with in his life.

The funny thing was, it actually worked, a very rusty and damaged lock clicking, the door swinging back to reveal about thirteen years' worth of dust and grime and other unmentionable things. That could easily be related back to his grandmother, Alice and the squalor she lived in. Alice was very scary in herself, with blonde hair and rheumy blue eyes and wrinkled skin, who kept complaining loudly about talking decks of cards and white rabbits and how bad Disney films were these days. Roxas thought she just watched '_Alice in Wonderland_' too much as it seemed she based her whole life upon its teachings. Rikku felt she had to keep going back to check up on her to make sure she wasn't dead yet.

Gingerly, the boy poked his arm into the murky gloom of the abandoned cabinet, expecting to find a mouldy half-eaten sandwich for all his efforts and damaged foot. However, he found quite a surprise, as he touched something definitely solid – although it may still be mouldy once he drew it out into the light. Maybe this was where Rikku got her cookie mix from. It smelled the same as the unappetising muck.

He carefully drew out a square-shaped object, and, after blowing away the years' of dust, found out it was an old family photo album. Wondering idly why Rikku and Tidus had decided to lock it up in a place they probably would never look, he flipped through it, being nosy. Maybe it contained information about their family and their dark past or those nice pictures Roxas took of when he shaved off Naminé's hair. He was little and he was jealous Rikku had given her all the attention. It was funny, but he swore Rikku had set them on fire. Maybe she wanted to keep one as a souvenir.

Although, there wasn't a single picture of the blonde-haired creature – they all seemed to be of him when he was a baby, with what he presumed to be a younger Tidus holding him, playing building blocks with him, and doing a variety of father-son activities. Funny that, because he was sure if he matched up that Tidus to this one their eyes were different colours, skin slightly different tones, different hair colour and face shape. Well, that was probably what time did to you, he thought. Or maybe he hadn't seen Tidus enough in his fifteen years to get a proper opinion on what he looked like. He was always asleep.

He continued to happily flip through the book, perfectly contented with all these old pictures and memories, until he stopped, staring at one of the pictures like it was a rabid demon and ready to rear up it's head and bite him.

It was impossible, that picture, because if he wasn't very much mistaken there were … two of him? Maybe Rikku loved him so much she had him cloned like Dolly the sheep, but the sheep died a while after that experiment. Maybe the 'other' Roxas died shortly after that. However, that obviously wasn't the cause, because Rikku and Tidus had enough munny to live on, but not enough to create two blonde boys. Although one of them didn't really have blonde hair like his, it was more … brown … and spiky … and his eyes were brighter, more alive. It looked a lot like somebody else he knew other than himself. He couldn't quite think who, though.

And then he read the caption underneath the picture, and his heart almost stopped with the gasp! Shock! Horror of it all!

'_Our Happy Family – Rikku Roxas Cloud…_' That was odd enough, but then it was followed by more, '_and darling Sora.'_

The only response Roxas could think to this piece of information was 'crap'. So what was what he said aloud, as he continued to flip through the book, going further back in time, all the captions obviously genuine, in Rikku's scrawling print.

They were all on holiday, then they were just sat together, talking a walk in the park, having a picnic, Sora was throwing a toy at Roxas, a pillow fight, both of them asleep in matching cots at the end of a busy day. Rikku holding two children in a hospital ward with a dreamy smile on her face, this 'Cloud' person next to her. If Roxas remembered rightly, because his details about Sora's personal life were very hazy, his dad was called Cloud, and he was married to somebody called … Aerith.

He closed the book, shuddering slightly; mind feeling like it had deserted him for a few seconds there or blown up. He felt sick, as he pulled out a few more pieces of paper, relics from at least thirteen years ago, of old birthday cards to Roxas and Sora, more assorted photos that must have fallen out of the album, marriage certificates to a Mr. Cloud Strife and his new wife, Rikku Strife. Her name sounded weird back then, Roxas thought, his imploded mind too fragile to really comprehend all the past he was digging through. Then there were the birth certificates, of Roxas and Sora Strife, both twins. Baby books, in Rikku and Cloud's writing of how much they loved their children, and then the divorce papers, the writing standing out as clear as day.

"ROXAS! It's alright, I've found them!" cried Rikku's bright voice, hacking into his poor, confused mind like a chainsaw, even worse than the ice-cream tune. Why had she kept it all from him, Roxas wondered, as he pushed the papers back into their dark confines and slammed the door shut, activating the faulty lock that clicked with a satisfying noise.

"Coming!" Roxas called back after her, trying to smooth out the look of shock and horror on his face, because he didn't see anything he shouldn't have. Well, he did, but Rikku needn't know that.

x.o.x

"I don't think using that stuff will work," said Roxas warily, looking down at the small particles that looked like sugar in a bag Rikku was holding. He was pretty sure; however, it wasn't sugar, what with the foul stench it was emitting in waves of poison. "Couldn't you just put cream paint over it or something?"

"Can't, it'll take too long and paint on wallpaper looks weird," said Rikku, wrinkling up her nose in distaste. "Now be a good boy and fetch some boiling water, I need to soak this … stuff … in it before it'll be able to take the wax crayon off the wall."

Roxas thought it wasn't very comforting that Rikku didn't appear to know what the hell she was about to layer on the wall, but went and did as she wished. He turned on the kettle; still thinking about all the forgotten pieces of history locked up in that cupboard, and poured the water into a large ceramic bowl.

"Thank you," smiled Rikku brightly, as she took the chemicals in one hand and the water in the other, copiously sprinkling the water with the crystals until it made a lot of putrid-smelling steam that made Roxas gag. "And now we just put it on the wall and wait for it to eat up the wax crayon," she declared, dumping the chemical-infested water onto the wall. "And now we wait until it … HOLY SHIT!"

It did get rid of the wax crayon, but unfortunately Rikku's magic mix got rid of half the wall as well, leaving a gaping hole situated next to the door, so you could look into the living room at will. Well, Roxas thought, soon having large holes in the walls of your house would probably be the next big craze in the furniture magazines and they'd be known as the 'coolest' family around. Then again, maybe not.

Naminé turned her head around from the T.V. she was watching, to gape at the large hole that had now formed in the wall, giving her a perfect view of Rikku and Roxas, who were both covered in … crap … from the explosion.

"Mummy, what does that word mean?" she asked innocently, making Rikku groan and slap herself with the back of her hand, inflicting much more pain than she would have liked, for that is how life is.

o.x.o

"Roxas! Wake up stupid boy!" cried an overly enthusiastic Naminé, who obviously didn't know all the bad dreams Roxas had slept through, about Cloud being his dad and Sora being his twin brother and … No wait, that was all true. Crap. He hoped very much it had all been a terrible nightmare. Well, if he wanted to jog his memory he could always go down and look at all that stuff again. "ROXAS! It's a b-e-u-teefullllllll day!" she continued, jumping on top of said boy like a blonde cannonball.

"Wha? No, no, I'm up, I'M UP!" he cried, shoving the girl off his bed. He wasn't on good terms with Naminé – it was all her fault there was a hole in the wall and the small fact that Roxas had discovered Sora was his twin brother. Hell that was very, very scary. No wonder everybody mixed them up all the time in school. Maybe it meant that Naminé wasn't his real sister, though… At least there was some good to be gained out of this. His head hurt from thinking so much.

"Oh, goodie," grinned the evil demon girl, obviously relishing his discomfort from her position on the floor, getting up shakily to poke at his dirty socks scattering the floor like they contained rabies. Well, maybe they did, and if she touched them they'd gain lives of their own and attack her, like that strange Wakka boy's hair that Selphie was constantly mentioning. She always told Naminé the evil orange cemented spike would eat her if she didn't hop to bed on time when she babysat. "You're awake! Hehe, it's fun poking my head through that large hole, but I thought my pretty picture was much better. Why did mummy explode the wall, Roxas? And why did you help her?"

"Because we're all stupid," growled Roxas, burying his head under the pillow, making his blonde hair become even more messed up than it already was. Maybe it looked more like Sora's now, he thought with a shudder. Every time he looked in the mirror, he was going to see that boy's reflection smiling back at him. "And your stupid brother wants to be alone now so he can get dressed."

"Am I stupid?" inquired Naminé, tilting her head to one side. "Mummy said daddy said she was stupid for exploding the wall to Aunty Yuna on the phone, but she was laughing about it."

She wasn't laughing yesterday, and she wouldn't be laughing now if she knew that I know her secret thought the boy grimly. "Yes, Naminé, when I say we are all stupid you are involved in the equation. Now please get out of my room. I want to get dressed."

"Okily dokily," giggled the girl, walking out of the boy's room, completely unaware to the thoughts buzzing around in his brain like irritating flies. "Hehe, that … guy … says that on … T.V … about the Flimpsons," she said to herself, unaware that the show she liked to watch was actually called '_the Simpsons_'.

x.o.x

The merry bell tinkled overhead in a happy way making Roxas want to club somebody over the head in a very unhappy way, as he made a murderous face and vowed he would get revenge on that bell someday. He didn't care how and he didn't care when, but one day if he ever became ruler of the world he would abolish all ice-cream tunes. They may have been cute and happy and delightful when he was a child – when Sora was a child and was his twin – but now they were just disturbing.

Speaking of disturbing things, Roxas wondered why Yuffie hadn't greeted him with her normal: 'Where the hell were you, you're fucking late again' and he was pretty sure he was late. There were other customers here already… And something didn't seem quite right about that, because there couldn't be any customers if Roxas wasn't serving, and Yuffie would never lower herself down to that level. She reserved the worst jobs for the staff, probably why nobody apart from him could manage to work there for more than a week without committing suicide. And then he remembered… He'd just had so much on his mind, he'd forgotten Axel worked here as well, and Yuffie had given him a … day off on Monday. In an addition to Saturday and Thursday he now had Monday off too whilst Axel served the … things … that were probably really aliens in the guise of children.

"Hello, Roxas," said the boy behind the counter in a weary voice, looking and sounding like he was ready to pass out on the counter if it weren't for the weird splodges of ice-cream stuck to it. Actually, he probably didn't care. He yawned, and didn't even seem to be able to be awake enough to get annoyed at the ice-cream theme tune, which was rather scary. No matter how tired Roxas ever was, he always managed to find time to think longingly of smashing the stupid thing and everybody else. "I guess you can't keep away from me, huh?" he yawned.

"Oh yeah, I forgot I had today off…" said Roxas hesitantly, looking Axel up and down. His skin was pale and he looked like death. Not a very flattering look on anybody, but Axel somehow made it look OK. "What's wrong with you?" he asked, not seeming to realise how rude he probably sounded.

"Can't … can't sleep," yawned Axel again, as his eyes twitched making him look like some sort of suicidal maniac, head drooping. "I feel like shit."

"I'm aware of that," said Roxas, not adding that he looked like it as well. Well, he didn't look that bad – it seemed impossible for Axel to really look that bad. "Where's Yuffie?"

"I dunno… Gone out with this Squall guy… Or was it Leon… I dunno. Maybe it was two guys," he answered, eyes closing. He opened them again with a start, aware of how close he had been to falling asleep just then. "I was … wasn't paying attention. I think I passed out at the counter…"

Roxas frowned. "Alright, that's it. If you keep working here like this you're going to die and Yuffie'll come back to a corpse in a stupid hat. Do you need any help?" Normally he wouldn't offer his services to anybody, and he would rather be in bed at that moment too. But Axel looked so helpless there, and many innocent children may end up dying needlessly if he had to work there alone. And he wouldn't even get paid for it – but he wanted to help Axel. Even if that meant sacrificing time to himself.

"Really? That'd be great," said Axel in a mumbled monotone, ruffling a hand through his crimson hair, making it look like he'd been electrocuted.

"So, why can't you get to sleep?" asked Roxas, donning a spare hat that had been left, crumpled up behind the counter. He wondered if Axel had tried to use it as a pillow and gotten stabbed by the pointy end.

Axel frowned. He didn't really feel like talking about his personal life to somebody he didn't really know that well, but he reminded him of somebody… Roxas reminded him of somebody he may have known once, ages ago. Maybe it was the blonde hair. And he was really too sleepy to care about what he was saying. "Bad dreams…"

"Me too," said Roxas dully, wincing as the ice cream tune tinkled again to herald the arrival of a mother and two children. They looked identical – twins, both screaming for food. This brought Roxas back to his mangled thoughts about how Sora was related to him and Tidus wasn't his real father, and he slumped down, feeling like banging his head on the counter.

"Are you OK?" asked Axel with concern. It was quite sweet really – Axel obviously was seconds away from passing out from exhaustion and he was asking Roxas if he was alright.

"Yeah… Just … Remembering the bad dream," sighed the boy. He would have to ask Rikku about it sometime… He really, really wanted to know about why she had kept it all from him before. Why his surname wasn't his real name because it was taken from Tidus. He had sat next to Sora in registration for the past two years, and it was strange how he had never realised before…

"Oh, right. Good. No, that's not good, is it?" asked Axel, as he served the two toffee ice-creams the mother had requested for the screaming children. "I feel like death…" moaned the boy, as the mother hurriedly gave him the correct amount of munny and toddled off with her children, obviously wondering if Axel was drugs or something she should protect the twins from.

"Not really…" Roxas replied, his mind still tied up in knots. Today was going to be a long day – and a long day without any munny at the end of it.

**-x-x-x-**

_A/N: Dun dun dun! So, yeah, this is plot hahaha! Sora is Roxas' twin, who'd have thought it? Certainly not you, mortals . Or maybe you did… Anyway, why did Rikku keep it a secret? Will Roxas tell Sora? Will Axel die? What are his weird dreams about? Who is this 'Squall' person? Is Marluxia an elf? Will the hole in the wall ever be fixed? Find out in another 'exciting' episode of … this … thing… Does this story have a plot at all? No, I'm asking YOU. Please review. If you do I'll give you … RECTANGLES! Think of the rectangles! They need good homes. Four more reviews for an update, please? innocent blink_


	6. o6 : lightening never strikes

-.**G**ood **M**orning _Sunshine_.-

.Chapter Six.

.lightening never strikes in the same place twice.

**-x-x-x**

"Axel…" said Sally in happy tones, tugging a brush roughly through her hair, making it crackle. There wasn't any point in it anyway – her hair was already as straight as a number of various straight objects. "You look like shit," she said in her lovely big-sister way, towering over the poor boy who was lying in a very awkward position on the couch, exhausted from all the bad dreams and a day serving ice-cream to annoying brats. He just wanted to go to sleep – he didn't care if it was 3:43 in the afternoon and the sun was still up, blinding everybody (very merrily) with ultraviolet rays.

"What?" he grunted, feeling like taking a pillow or some other squishy object and blotting out all unnecessary noise his sister was making. Why was it that nobody would ever let him get any sleep? Why did fate mock him so? Why was Sally so annoying? Nobody knew and probably never would.

"I'm going out," she said brightly, and Axel made some sort of weird noise that was meant to signify he was glad she actually had a social life. "To a party. With Jack and Emily," she said. All her friends were scary, even to Axel. Jack – her boyfriend – had the skin complexion of a vampire and dark, hollow eyes that looked like those on a skull. And he was as tall and thin as a stick. And Emily appeared to be basing her 'cool' and 'retro' image on a spoiled piece of meat left out in the sun too long crossed with something dead that one finds dug up in a cemetery. And Sally could look scary sometimes too, with all those stitches along her arms from when she fell out of the window somehow and had to go to hospital. He wondered who would want to invite them to their party. Maybe somebody who was blind.

"Good for you," he mumbled into the couch, feeling a little like that piece of spoiled meat left out in the sun too long. Natural light was bad and he just wanted to curl up and die in some dark cave and never be seen of again. He blamed Kairi for everything – she and Demyx were the ones who devised the evil scheme to make him work in the ice cream parlour. And he hadn't been having those nightmares until he met Roxas. Stupid boy. Although he couldn't be mad at him – he had offered to help him today.

"So don't answer the door to strangers or go on a mad killing rampage," she trilled in happy tones, tugging at the hem of her shirt which declared she was from a place called 'Halloweentown'. Wherever the hell that was.

"I'm not a kid, Sally," he moaned.

"You're still fifteen, and I'm the big responsible sister and if something goes wrong then our parents will have my head on a silver platter," she said, now starting to apply another layer of lipstick without the aid of a mirror. She managed to do it reasonably well.

There a long silence, as Sally said goodbye and left to join the company of the Jack and Emily. Axel moaned, as he closed his eyes. Sally knew their parents didn't really care about them. If he died they'd probably just wonder what happened to the weird kid, and then decide Axel didn't exist at all and it was the cat that died instead.

Not that they had a cat.

o.x.o

"_And from the southern island at the tip of the archipelago violent winds are blowing in coupled tumultuous rain showers and thunder storms. It is advised everybody stays at home this night. The storms will be above the island in a matter of hours,_" came the monotonous voice of the guy in the bad shirt on the television. Rikku sniffed, she wasn't planning on going out anyway.

Her phone lay abandoned on the side, which was something that only happened once every millennium, as for once she wasn't rotting her brain with Yuna or Paine's voices. She was talking to Tidus, who was actually awake, sitting next to her. It was a rare sight – as rare a dodo flapping past the window would have been. Or flapping past the giant hole in the wall that had been there a grand total of one day and was already infuriating everybody.

"This is boring," moaned Rikku, not caring about the bad choice of clothes the guy had on – it was tragic – and the stuff he was spewing out in his boring voice was putting Tidus to sleep. Again. She sighed, and picked up the remote, switching it to some Spanish game-show. She sighed – even this piece of crap was better than the boring old man reading the news. The news was only interesting if somebody had died lately or something had exploded. When the oil rig had smashed against the beach oozing black liquid everything, that had been something worth talking about. And the seagulls were never the same again. Half of the seagull population dead so they didn't deafen everybody with caws every five seconds – oh it had been happy, happy days.

Roxas yawned, making his way down the stairs. He hadn't been having a very good day, but none of his days were very good. His mind was still twisted into some giant knot from the discovery he'd made yesterday and then when he ran into Sora after work with Kairi he had wanted to shout at him that they were related, which obviously was not a very subtle approach to telling him the information. He had to ask Rikku about it – he had to. Or else he was going to go crazy and he'd be locked up in a mental house for the rest of his years and he'd never see Axel and his stupid hat again. Not that he cared, obviously.

He walked through the door into the living room, trying his best to resist the temptation of jumping through the hole. He would probably just catch his foot on it and bring the whole house down in a pile of rubble.

"Hello, Roxas," greeted Rikku merrily in a typical Rikku way, the sounds of laughter and somebody screaming in Spanish whilst being dumped in custard backing up her voice. Tidus' eyes remained glued to the screen in pure horror, wondering what the hell television had turned into whilst he'd been asleep. It wasn't normal.

"Hello, mum and … Tidus?" asked Roxas, eyes moving back to the blonde-haired man on the couch next to Rikku. Everybody in his family had blonde hair, except for … Sora. Alright, that was it, he had to ask her what was going on, he couldn't keep it all inside or he'd burst like the balloons at Naminé's birthday party. Olette had been very frightened.

"Yeah, I'm awake for once," said the man who wasn't dad but said he was in his unfortunate voice. It wasn't his fault that some higher power had decided to give him such a … girly … talking … manner. "Rikku, can you please change the channel, this stuff is rotting my mind… How about the Blitzball?"

"No," said Rikku. "When you're awake all you do is watch Blitzball. I want to broaden your understanding of the Spanish culture," she said, indicating the T.V that was glowing with bright colours as some guy was assaulted by a giant mouse trap.

"What, all Spanish people have stupid voices and walk around in outfits consisting of custard and mouse traps?" asked Tidus, making Rikku laugh. She was probably thinking of what a stupid voice _he_ had. Well, Roxas was.

Before he'd seen the photo album, he'd always figured that even though he barely knew Tidus – who was like a vampire, always shying from the light and coming out in darkness – he guessed that because he was his dad he'd just have to love him. Despite his tacky clothing and bad voice. But now he'd figured out there was no real reason for him to love him… He didn't. He always thought of Tidus more as a big brother (or a big baby) anyway.

"I have to talk to you," said Roxas, with a note of seriousness in his voice, but it was hard to sound serious. Some guy in the Spanish show had just been attacked by a man in an asparagus costume. Roxas wondered if the producer was on crack when he invented the 'lovely' show. Naminé probably would have liked it if she weren't at Olette's house for a little girly sleepover.

"What about?" asked Tidus, happy to have an excuse to press the 'mute' button on the remote control. Rikku looked a little annoyed, and seemed to be thinking of phoning Yuna and Paine to tell them Tidus didn't like Spanish shows and Roxas had 'issues'.

"Well, you know when Naminé drew on the wall yesterday?" he asked uncertainly, prompting a nod from Rikku. "Well, I went to go and find the stuff to remove it from the wall, and I found this locked cabinet in the bathroom downstairs." Rikku went through several emotions all at once – shock, horror and despair. Tidus looked blank, flipping through teletext for news on the Blitzball tournament between Destiny Islands and Hollow Bastion. "I thought it was locked so Naminé couldn't get to the chemicals, and I kicked it several times and the drawer came open…" Rikku scowled, a look that obviously said 'I knew I should have put it somewhere safer'. Tidus looked angry because Destiny Islands had lost the game. "And I found all these photos and … I know. About Sora."

"Sora? Sounds like a girly name to me…" said Tidus, who was obviously oblivious to the whole thing. Rikku glared at him and hit him over the head – she had chosen that name and she thought 'Sora' was a very pretty name. Despite the fact it was for a girl…

"Oh…" said Rikku softly, ignoring the angry glares Tidus was shooting her. She could hit hard. "So … You know … Have you told Sora?" she asked softly, averting her gaze from her son and looking down to the floor. It was a very welcoming, comforting sort of floor that she could drown her troubles in. "I told … Cloud not to tell him about it. It would upset you two too much."

Yes. It did scare Roxas, because Sora was a bubble-head with a mind full of fluff and biscuit crumbs. And that Rikku had managed to hide it from her whole family for so long.

"So that's why you never told me…" he said softly. Tidus now looked vaguely interested in the conversation. Probably because he hoped it would somehow end up to be about him because he wanted to feel important and wanted. Sometimes Naminé acted like she didn't even know him and Roxas … Roxas acted like he didn't want to know him.

"Yeah… And that, well, I was too sad to talk about it," she said in a quiet voice. A quiet voice was not something Rikku used often. Her green eyes seemed to well up with tears that threatened to roll down her face in a small waterfall. "So I decided to move on with my life … And try to forget. I still had you, and that's all that mattered. Then I met Tidus…" Tidus smiled. It was good to be important in a vast and complex story. "And I gave you his last name, because I didn't want you to realise, because then you'd know…"

"Why didn't you just burn all the memories, then?" asked Roxas. His mother's logic was a scary thing. She didn't even seem to have any logic. Maybe that why Sora was such a scatterbrain. He was like her – his mother.

"Because that was the only way I could really look at Sora and realise he was my son…" she said softly. "And if you know… Well… Maybe you better go and tell him. It would be best if he knew…"

Roxas nodded. It didn't take long to walk to Sora's house. He couldn't just tell him on the phone. That would be too heartless.

x.o.x

Footsteps echoed around the small alley as Sally and her scary emo friends walked around in a group, people walking past in the street quickening their step as they passed them. It was knowledge that gangs of children were believed to be evil to their elders and betters, and any one of them could be carrying a knife ready to kill defenceless old women and young children. And most of the people were hurrying, anyway – there was a large storm brewing, it was obvious from the sound of thunder claps far off into the distance. And storms on Destiny Islands could be lethal – almost everybody knew about what happened all those years ago. It was displayed all over the papers – that poor girl who got hit by lightening. Her parents were distraught and moved away from the island to start a new life, and slowly people forgot her name. She just became an 'incident' had happened in the island's history and nobody really cared anymore.

"Do you think it's wise to be out when there's a storm?" asked Sally hesitantly. She had always been the smart one of the group. Jack always acted rashly and did whatever he wanted – memories of him trying to beat up a bully at school known as 'Ooogie Boogie' came to mind. And Emily was just an emo who didn't seem to mind if she died anymore after her boyfriend Victor split up with her. And at times like this Sally knew she was the only smart person left on earth.

"Come on, Sally, Zexion's house is only a block away, we're nearly there," said Jack, shaking his skeletal head. "You can't be afraid of a little bit of rain, can you?"

Emily made a face, as she brushed down her outfit that was now slightly damp. She was always a dramatic person and her attire seemed to consist of a bridal gown, for reasons Sally couldn't fathom. It was too hard to try to bother to crack the rubix cube that was her mind. You couldn't align all the colours.

"No, of course I'm not," she said, raising her arms defensively. She guessed it was just a motherly instinct she got after looking after Axel for so long – sure, the occasional babysitter that had been hired by their parents had tried to help when they were younger, but Sally was the one who took care of him most. She figured she just didn't want her two friends to get hurt, either. It had been her who had to endure Emily crying swimming pools after Victor broke up with her, it was her everybody turned to when they had a crisis. It was mildly annoying, actually.

"Good, that means there's nothing to complain about," said Emily with a small smile. Sally wondered idly if her hair really was dark blue or if it was dyed. Although she didn't think you could get blue dye.

Jack nodded, and they continued on their merry way, Sally glancing up at the sky wordily every few seconds, counting how apart each thunderbolt was.

o.x.o

Roxas made his way along the street, rain falling around him, making a pretty 'tinkle, drip splosh' symphony as they hit the pavement. His heart was beating at a rapid pace – he was going to go out and completely destroy Sora's life. But Sora was so carefree he probably wouldn't mind that much … No, he would mind, he wasn't that stupid. And what if Riku or Kairi was with him? Then he wouldn't be able to tell him. And Cloud would throw him from the house if he heard Roxas trying to warp the poor boy's mind. Everything was confusing, like a code he couldn't crack.

He knew he shouldn't be walking outside in the storm, and he just wanted to get it all over with. He started to jog to get to his destination quicker, blonde hair becoming plastered to his head like it was some sort of helmet. It wasn't a look Roxas would ever encourage in the fashion magazines. It would receive a lot of angry complaints that it looked very, very bad.

The sky seemed to be changing colours, deep crimson and blue and then black, again and again. Red, almost like blood.

He felt uneasy, as the thunder came closer and closer, until his over-active imagination could feel it slamming into him, making it hard to breathe. It must be all the running he was doing. His heart pounded uncomfortably in his rib cage. He just wanted to turn back and go home. And even if he did reach Sora's house, he would just be the bearer of bad news. He didn't want to ruin Sora's life. He wished he had been heartless enough to tell him over the phone, with Rikku backing him up so Sora would know it was the truth.

Trainers hit the ground, as he skidded around a corner and almost collided with three teenagers, slipping on the wet ground. He made a graceful descent and landed with a dull 'thunk' on his backside.

Sally and her two friends turned around to see the stupid boy sat there on the pavement. Well, he'd almost knocked them over, he should feel uncomfortable from the glares they were giving him, he should shiver as he found himself under their radar. She hoped he would catch a cold and die. And then she thought Dear God, I've been listening to Emily and Jack too much. He's just a kid.

"Are you alright?" she asked, trying to smooth out any annoyed look from her face. Roxas sneezed miserably in reply and took the hand the girl was offering to help him up, nearly falling back again. Yes. When he got older he would have to pursue a career as a ballet dancer, with slick moves like that.

"Sally, why are you bothering with the kid?" asked the girl who looked like a hunk of dead meat that the cat dragged in, wearing none other than a sort of bridal style dress, the fool. On a rainy afternoon like this.

And then her name snagged in his brain. He'd heard of somebody called Sally before. He knew that name… It was… Axel's sister. Axel's sister was called Sally, she had told him her name over the phone when it was obvious she'd wished Roxas would die from her snippy tone.

And his thoughts were interrupted by a loud crack. The storm was directly over them, and the news reported had been right – it was stupid to attempt to go outside in weather like this. Destiny Islands' storms were vicious, and they always seem to try to pick off one child at a time. Like that nameless girl that everybody had forgotten, the storm had decided Sally would fit that role.

There was a scream, and her crumpled body hit the ground.

Roxas stared at her, feeling the static in the air. The lightning bolt could have hit him. He could have been the one lying on the ground instead of Sally. All his mind could come up with was: "Fuck…"

x.o.x

Axel moaned, as the sound a phone ringing woke him up like a clap of thunder. Or maybe the phone was ringing and there was also thunder, he didn't really know, his mind still chewed up with lack of sleep. He'd had those nightmares again. About that little girl… He couldn't remember her name. Those were the annoying parts of it. He'd remember exactly what she looked like, how her voice sounded, but couldn't figure out what her name was.

He rolled over and fell off the couch in a heap of limbs, crawling to the phone that was buried under a mountain of junk – reminding him of the fact the house really needed cleaning – and picked up.

"Hello?" he asked, yawning slightly. He was always sleepy – he must have been cursed by some God or something. Or maybe he could blame Kairi for that as well – everything else was her fault.

"Axel… Something bad's happened," said the familiar voice at the end of line, distorted by all the static in the air from the storm. It wouldn't be long before it managed to take the power out. Axel hated storms – his nightmares had been reminding him of the fact that in his childhood something had happened to make him terrified of lightning. He whimpered slightly as another loud thunderclap started up outside.

"What's wrong?" he asked, trying to figure out who was speaking. It was … Roxas! Roxas, that's who was speaking. "Wait … How did you get my number? I never told it to you…"

He could hear the sigh at the end of the line. "Kairi or Demyx must have dropped a piece of paper with it on at the fountain. But that's not the point," he said in urgent tones.

Axel then recognised whose phone Roxas was calling him on, from the number flashing on the screen. It was Emily's – Sally told him the numbers of her friends so if they rang up when she was gone he'd know to answer the phone. "Why are you using Emily's phone? Don't you have one?"

"Arrggghhh!" cried Roxas in frustration. "Naminé dropped it in the fish tank, but anyway…"

"Who's Naminé?" asked Axel, trying to blot out the sounds of the thunder in the background. He didn't like thunder and it didn't like him. Bad memories, bad memories.

"IT DOESN'T MATTER!" roared Roxas on the other end of the phone. "Axel, Sally's been hit by lightening and she's badly hurt! You have to go to local hospital, she's there! We called for an ambulance, the hospital people want to see a member of her family. Come now!"

"Oh my God…"

It was at that moment that Emily's phone gave a dying beep from lack of battery power and turned off.

**-x-x-x-**

_A/N: Gasp. Cliffhanger. Will Sally die? Who was that girl Axel's having nightmares about? Will Sora ever learn he's Roxas' twin? Will Emily's phone get re-charged? Do you think there are massive plot holes in this? Does Marluxia ever appear? Will they ever make a game called Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom of Hearts or Kingdom Heartless? Find out in the next update! Hahaha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Please review! I'll love everybody who does! If you review you get a … CIRCLE! Just imagine that, folks! Four reviews for an up-date, pwease?_


	7. o7 : being emo is fun

-.**G**ood **M**orning _Sunshine_.-

.Chapter Seven.

.being emo is fun.

**-x-x-x-**

Rikku sat on the sofa, Tidus – the big useless pudding that he was – asleep next to her. She knew he worked shifts, but really. It had been almost an hour, and Roxas still hadn't come back. She sighed, the French quiz show (the Spanish one had ended) no longer interesting and funny. Her nerves were just destroying the comedy of the man attempting to speak French. He kept saying things like 'I am an artichoke with a pet dog' and 'Is this the pudding to Ohio?'. She was worried about Roxas. Maybe Cloud had gone insane and locked him in a closet when he announced that Sora was really his twin brother.

She pressed a hand to her temple, sighing. Oh, the drama was killing her. She reached for her mobile, thinking of calling Yuna or Paine and telling them about what a horrible life she was leading. But somehow, she found herself flipping through the Yellow Pages, trying to locate an 'S' for Strife.

Using every piece of courage she had, she dialled the number, and pressed the phone to her ear. She bit her lip anxiously, as it rang and rang and rang. She wanted to slam it down, she didn't want to speak to Cloud ever again after he ran off with … that woman. Aerith. But she had too, because she loved Roxas.

"Hello, the Strife residence, this is Cloud. Who's this?" asked that familiar voice on the end of the line. Who really answered the phone like that, Rikku thought sadly. Maybe it was good he had ran off – he was too formal for her. She whined like a kicked puppy. It was hard to say anything. "What? If this is a joke I'm hanging up right now," came the irritated voice.

"No! Nononono!" gulped Rikku in an incoherent babble, trying to regain control over her voicebox. She didn't want to end up sounding like Tidus. "This … This is Rikku…"

There was a long pause, and Cloud said brightly: "Oh, you mean Sora's friend Riku? I'll put him over…"

"No! It's Rikku! R-I-K-K-U!" she spelt out in a mad rush. She wasn't even sure what she was saying, her nerves taking over her. This time there was another pause, longer and more drawn out that the other – it was cold and icy.

"Oh. It's you. We haven't spoken in … thirteen years. How are you?" he asked coldly. He had obviously been trying to forget about her. He didn't want her ruining his life. She was just a faded memory as far as Cloud was concerned.

"It's … Roxas… He… He learnt about it. Y'know," replied Rikku, feeling a headache coming on from all the crackling the phone was making. She hoped it wasn't broken. "I told him to go and tell Sora about … I think they're old enough to know about what happened. Is Roxas with you?"

Another silence. Then a very angry Cloud was speaking in forced tones of politeness down the line. "No, you stupid woman. One, you promised me you'd never let them know. Two, how could you send him out in this storm? Remember what happened to that girl a few years ago? She _died_, Rikku. Roxas hasn't been here. But Aerith got called in for an emergency shift at the hospital. There is a possibility."

"But … but…" stammered Rikku, trying to suppress the tears. Cloud didn't care about Roxas, and he was his child… Everything was so confusing, and … Roxas couldn't be dead. But why hadn't he spoken to her? His own phone was broken but he could have used a pay phone.

"No, that's it, Rikku. I'm putting the phone down. Goodbye."

"But … but! He's your son too! Don't you care about him?" she wailed. She kept on asking him, tears rolling down her cheeks. It was painfully obvious Cloud couldn't hear what she was saying because he'd slammed the phone down, static buzzing in her ear.

o.x.o

Axel didn't like the thunder, and he didn't want to go outside in it. The hospital wasn't too far away – about a fifteen minute walk, but it was dangerous in the storm and he could feel the fear creeping back to him. It had happened to … her … The girl nobody remembered. They had been friends. And now it was happening all over again to his sister. He remembered how afraid he had been in his nightmares, how the girl had asked him what he did when he was frightened. He … managed to work himself up so he became even worse. Two wasn't a large enough number, because if you lived in a family of two and somebody fell of the edge you'd be left alone. Sally could … Sally could die.

He had to go and see her; Roxas had said that somebody from her family had to be there. Of course, they were obviously talking about parents, but they were always away. And if Sally died, he'd be left alone and have nowhere to go. He'd just be living by himself until his parents came back for about two days, before they moved away again.

Fighting the strong urge to just hide under a coffee table in a shivering mess, he pulled on his trainers and fumbled around with the keys until he managed to fit the right one in the lock. It clicked open, and he paused to lock the door again behind him before running off.

It was only when the rain hit him that he realised he was stupid and didn't bring a coat. Crap.

Oh well, he thought glumly, the lightning flashing across the sky like prongs from hell. Maybe he'd get hit too and then he and Sally would end up in hospital. It must be nice in hospital, because even if you're badly hurt or dying you knew somebody was taking care of you. Sally always used to take care of him, even if he protested.

He ran on through the street, feeling like jumping into a bush every time he heard the thunder. It was just the noise he didn't like – and when … she had been hurt, he had ran off and left her. He couldn't run off and leave Sally.

So all he could do was run and keep running, sprinting across roads. There weren't any cars; everybody had decided to stay inside. It wasn't that late, only about 5 p.m., but the storm plunged everything into some sort of realm where it was always midnight. It was dark and hard to see as he ran, hearing the thunder split through the air. He would be lying if he said he wasn't terrified.

All he could do was keep going, on and on until he felt like his heart would explode. He never liked P.E that much, was never one of the athletic children. He never tried, but now he was trying.

He could faintly make out the hospital off in the distance. It wasn't a very big building, because there weren't any real gangs or vandals in Destiny Islands. Half of the people in there were only in there by accident, like falling off ladders. He'd been to the hospital for Sally before, when she fell out of the window and cut herself across her arms and legs. He was scared then, but this was worse.

Finally, when he felt like he was ready to collapse on the ground from a heart attack – every time he heard a thunder clap he nearly jumped out of his sodden skin – he made his way to the front entrance. He was finally there, and that nightmare was over – and another one was about to begin.

It was very clean inside the hospital, like an ice berg, all white and sterilized. It was like some sort of dream, it didn't look real. He felt like if he touched something it would dissolve in front of his finger tips.

There was a really, really weird man with pink hair at the front desk styled in a very … strange … way, who was reading a romance novel. He looked like a girl, thought Axel with a shudder. The cheap wooden name-plate that was beside him read 'Receptionist: Marluxia'. And Axel had thought, from all the films he'd watched, that all receptionists were female. Well, this guy was female enough, giggling lightly at something the heroine in the story had said. This was annoying.

"Uh, hello?" asked Axel hesitantly.

Marluxia didn't seem to hear him, too engrossed in his novel, a stupid smile playing about his lips. Axel really, really wanted to hit him, and the thunder outside was making him feel jumpy. It did nothing for his jangled nerves.

"HELLO!" Axel cried in frustration, making the girly man … or manly girl … turn his head in annoyance at who dared distract him (or her) from his (or her) romance story.

"What? What do you want?" asked the girly man, his voice even sounding high pitched and feminine to the point of disturbing. "You don't appear to be dead and you don't have bits falling of you so I'd appreciate it if you'd leave."

Axel scowled. He really, really wanted to hit something now. "Look," he said through gritted teeth. "I'm Axel … Hello? Are you listening to me? MY SISTER GOT HIT BY LIGHTNING!" he yelled irritably, the Marluxia fellow having decided he wasn't as interesting as his book, eyes flickering across the print.

"Oh, right… Yes, a Sarah … What was her last name? Oh well. A … Cindy was brought here about half an hour ago. She was nearly dead," said the very unprofessional Marluxia brightly. "She's on ward … thirteen … I think … If you'd like to see her, with Doctor Xemnas and Nurse Aerith," giggled Marluxia. Yes, he did giggle, in a more disturbed way than Roxas, because when Roxas did it was sort of cute. And he didn't giggle often.

"Her name's Sally," said Axel, storming off to find the right ward, Marluxia's 'that's nice!' trilling merrily along after him.

x.o.x

Roxas was quickly finding out that having Emily and Jack as company in the waiting room wasn't something to be desired. Every five seconds Jack would mumble some depressing shit about how much he loved Sally and that the scenario did not look good and that is was 'no use'. Emily was humming some lovely song about death to herself, wiping her eyes on the corner of her bridal gown. Roxas just wanted to throw a chair at something.

He tapped his foot on the floor irritably. They were performing an operation on Sally, and every few minutes Aerith – that made his depressed too as she was Sora's new mother – would wheel in more and more alarming equipment. They were trying to disturb everybody now, he thought.

"Sally was right… We shouldn't have come out," sniffed anorexia man, and Roxas idly wondered if he'd snap if he bent him in two.

And then there was that weird receptionist Marluxia who smelled strangely of roses and giggled constantly, and that weird doctor called Xaldin who kept walking up and down telling him not to worry and everything was going to be alright. He had really weird hair that reminded him a bit of that girl who sat behind him at school – Lulu. Xaldin probably wasn't qualified enough to take care of Sally. And it wasn't a very busy night in the hospital – everybody else was smart enough not to go outside. The only other people that seemed to be there apart from them and the doctors were two weird kids, Pence and Hayner who were there to see their friend who had a broken leg as they had loudly told them in passing, and a father and a boy in a wheelchair who was recovering from some ordeal.

Roxas envied the small boy – he had a better parental figure than him.

"Hey … it's you guys!" cried a voice, and Roxas turned his head to see Axel coming up towards them, looking around warily in the very bleak hospital like the white-washed walls would come alive and eat him. He was trying to keep his voice under control and disguise his fright, and wasn't doing a very good job.

"Hello, Axel…" said Roxas, a sad smile on his face. Axel looked worse than he did in the ice cream parlour today – it must have been the worry about his sister. "We're not allowed to see Sally at the moment, they're operating on her. She's not dead, they would have said if she was," he explained. Jack was still moaning depressing things and Emily was still humming. Roxas wondered if Emily was mentally scarred and incapable of thinking or something.

The weird Xaldin man with hair like Lulu's strolled back along the corridor, and tried to smile when he saw Axel. It looked more like a grimace. "You guys can go home now," he told the three of them sat there. "This young man and I need to talk. Although, I was hoping your parents would be coming here… It was unsafe of you to come through the thunder, should have come with your family in the car…"

Jack and Emily got up, deciding there wasn't much point waiting for Sally any more when the operation would take a while and they could go home and be emo about her, but Roxas didn't move. He knew Rikku would be worried about him, and he'd phone her later, but he wanted to wait for Axel. Friends were meant to wait for each other, he decided.

o.x.o

"Hello?" asked Rikku in nervous tones, not sure of the news she was about to receive. She had remembered what Cloud had said about Aerith being called to the hospital because some kid had got hit by lightening and they required her expertise. So she decided to check to make sure it wasn't her baby who got hurt. If Roxas got hurt… She'd never live with herself.

"Yeah, this is the Destiny Islands local hospital, emergencies only, how may I help you?" asked a female voice. Well, it sounded female, but it could have been male, Rikku guessed. It was just a very, very scary individual, she told herself. She didn't want to think what weirdos the hospital employed. She pressed the phone closer to her ear.

"I was wondering if you knew who got hit by lightening…" she said, biting her lip. Most hospitals didn't give out this sort of information unless it was to family members, and she was Roxas' mother. If it was Roxas she had a right to know.

"I'm sorry, but I can't divulge information like that over the telephone, I need my job," replied the bored voice on the other end of the line, confirming Rikku's fears.

"Was it a boy called Roxas? Because if it was I'm his mother…" said Rikku in a shaky voice, looking down at the all-comforting floor. If something went wrong, the carpet would know what to do, Rikku convinced herself. Yes. The secret of life was written on that carpet somewhere.

"No, ma'am, it was a female. She was accompanied in the ambulance by a kid called some stupid name like that. He was called Rosie … Rucksack … Rocks ass…" said the rather perplexed and bamboozled voice at the other end of the line.

"Oh. What did he look like?" asked Rikku, pressing for more information. At least she knew that Roxas was alright, and that was all that mattered, but just to make sure…

"Well, you know Aerith the nurse?"

"Yes," she said through gritted teeth. She did know that woman and she didn't like her very much. She never wanted to hear her name again as long as she lived. She decided to do the very smart adult thing and blame all her misfortunes on her, even the gaping hole in the wall.

"Well, he looked sort of like her kid. She's always showing pictures of her kid to me when I'm trying to read my books, dead annoying it is. Her kid's name was Sara… Or something gay like that."

"Sora," she said coldly. Sora's name was not stupid and neither was Roxas' and the person on the other end of the line could go to hell. She'd helped name them.

She hung up.

x.o.x

Xaldin had pretty much cornered Axel in the small box of a room that was meant to be his 'office', towering over him even though Axel was very tall for his age. It was hard to take him seriously, however, with massive sideburns like that. It seemed that everybody that worked in the hospital was weird and messed up in the head in some way or other, and he didn't trust the life of his sister in their hands.

"So, you're her brother… When we requested one of her family members came over here, we meant her parents. I need to discuss Sally's health with them."

"You can't see them," said Axel, shaking his head. "They're away in a business conference in Traverse Town right now. Sally knew their phone number but she's not in any state to tell it to anybody. Obviously. She told me but I've forgotten… She was always the responsible one." His voice caught in his throat suffering from the emotion and drama of it all.

Mr. Xaldin with the freaky sideburns of doom nodded his head in an understanding manner. "So you have no way of contacting them at all?" he asked, and Axel nodded. "Well, there a few options you can take. You can stay here in the hospital over-night and wait to see if she gets better… Or you can go home yourself, and wait for her to be released. I take it you're old enough to fend for yourself. But I don't the latter is a very wise choice. We are sure Sally will get better and Aerith and Xemnas are very highly qualified indeed. It didn't do any permanent damage to her, but when your parents return from their trip I'll need to inform them about her accident and how it may affect their daughter."

Axel didn't want to leave Sally; he wanted to be by her side. And if he had to listen to the thunderstorms all by himself at home he might go insane. Even if Sally was being operated on, he wouldn't feel so alone. "I'll spend the night here, then… How long will she be in here?"

"Oh, if all goes according to plan the operation will only take a couple of hours and she'll just need a lot of rest. We'll have to keep her in about a week or two afterwards just to make sure she's alright, and then when her condition is stable she should be allowed to go home, with her guardian's consent. But your parents are coming home soon anyway, are they not?"

"They should be back tomorrow," confirmed Axel with a nod of his head. "I'll go home tomorrow and tell them about Sally, then you can sort it all out…" he said. He never liked his parents. He wondered if they even cared about Sally… Obviously they couldn't care about her as much as he did.

"Well then, there should be no fuss," said Xaldin in forced happy tones, ushering Axel out of his office. "You can go back and wait."

"That's all I can do? Just … wait?" asked Axel. He wanted to be helpful; he needed Sally to be alright, he had to make sure she'd be OK. Despite all his reassurances that she was perfectly alright and the shock would just have knocked her unconscious and maybe messed around with her insides a little, he didn't feel sure about the whole thing. L… L… Her name was on the tip of his tongue, and he scowled. The future was dragging back the past he'd tried so hard to forget. But she … she had died.

Xaldin nodded glumly, and led Axel back to row of uncomfortable orange chairs. He knew orange was meant to be a cheerful colour, but now it just reminded him of crimson, and crimson led to blood, and blood was something Sally needed to live… In his fits of distress, he nearly sat on the small blonde boy who made an indignant noise.

"Roxas!" said Axel, genuinely happy to see that the boy would wait for somebody he didn't even know to get better just for him. But Roxas actually had a home to go back too with parents who wanted him. He couldn't force the boy to split his sorrows; it was his problem, not Roxas'. And they hardly knew each other anyway, it didn't make sense. "I don't think it would be a smart thing if you stayed here. I mean, you're parents, they'll freak out… I don't want to drag you down into my pits of emo-ness." It was so touching and bizarre he almost wanted to cry. He'd wanted to cry about the whole thing for a while now, but he didn't because he was a survivor.

"I called my mum with the pay phones outside and told her I was going to stay here and wait with you. She wasn't happy about it – but she's glad that I'm not hurt. She said no, but I sort of ignored her. She'll be as angry as hell when I go back home, but you can't wait here all alone. You'll be scarred forever unless you have some company," said the boy in a matter-of-fact voice. "I'll wait with you if you want. I already asked Marluxia if I could stay and he said alright, but I don't think he actually heard what I was saying…"

Axel smiled wanly, not wanting to think up any more excuses as to why he should go home, because he wanted to be selfish. He wanted Roxas to himself; he wanted somebody there to wait with him whilst the doctors examined Sally and tried to fix her back together again. "T-Thanks, Roxas," he said, a bolt of thunder accompanying his words, as he shivered. The lightening had taken away … her … and it wasn't going to take away Sally either. It had been adrenaline that had carried him to the hospital, but now he was just waiting and … he couldn't bear it.

Roxas tilted his head and looked questioningly at Axel, who just looked like a frightened little child now; a deer in the headlights. It was sort of … cute really, he thought with a wan smile.

He didn't want to confide in Roxas about his pathetic fear, but he reminded him so much of that faded little girl from his memories. Maybe it was the blonde hair and blue eyes, or maybe it was because … he, like her, meant a lot to him. And that was scary, because they hardly knew each other. And yet Roxas cared enough about him to wait. "I … I can't stand thunder," he mumbled, feeling a bit pathetic. "Or lightening – it's … just bad memories that come back in bad dreams. And it's happening again…"

The blonde-haired boy laughed softly, and wrapped his arms around Axel. "Don't be stupid. There's nothing to be afraid of. Sally's going to be alright, d'you hear? She'll be fine. You'll be fine. Nobody's dead."

"Yet," mumbled Axel, visions of the future dancing in his head, of tombstones and corpses, yet he felt strangely safe as Roxas hugged him, like he was banishing all these childhood fears away. Axel tried so hard to act strong and tough, yet he was really … Just weak and helpless on the inside, and Roxas had reminded him of that.

An uneasy sleep finally settled over him, head lolling onto the blonde boy's shoulder, of dark dreams wrapped around memories of the past.

o.x.o

_The boy stared down in horror at the girl's crumpled and charred corpse lying on the ground. Maybe if she had been older she would somehow have survived the mighty blast of electricity coursing through her body, but she was only small and was easily tossed aside like a rag doll. He body sailed again and again, replaying throughout his mind as he ran._

_He kept going, past the seaside shack constructed by him and her about a year ago, thunder crackling, every second wondering if it would snatch him away next. He could still see her, still hear her head cracking with a sickening noise against the cold ground, like some holy video or D.V.D. It wouldn't leave him alone no matter how many times he shook his head._

_Quickly, he made his way to his small wooden boat. He could make it back to the mainland in a matter of minutes if he paddled hard enough, he could escape from this nightmare and never look back. It was hard though, as his eyes rested on the twin boat next to his and realised somebody would never be coming back._

_Somebody's time on this planet was up. To him, they had been more than friends. It had been something much deeper that meant more to the little boy than anything else had. His parents were never around, Sally had only just fallen out a window and was in hospital, friends came and went. They were never permanent, but for all his six years she had always been there. She had always been smiling and taking his hand and leading him into the future. If he couldn't rely on anybody else, he could rely on her._

_But not any more. Who could rely on a dead girl? He'd forget her, bury the one person to the deep confines of his memory and never look back for her. It was heartless, but it was the only thing he could do._

x.o.x

Roxas could hear quiet sobs mingling with his dreamless sleep, and he opened his eyes slightly. His blue orbs were treated to a lovely blinding light. It took him a while to realise who the boy was resting his head on his shoulder was, but the answer came swiftly to him: it was Axel. Then he had to figure out where he was, and that wasn't too difficult: he was waiting in hospital with Axel because Sally had been hit by lightening and Roxas was too kind to let him wait alone stewing in his fears. Then he had to wonder why Axel was crying. And as to that … he had no idea.

"Axel? Axel, what's wrong?" he asked softly, as the boy continued to sob onto his shoulder. Maybe all the stress about what had happened to his sister had finally washed over him in a tsunami of feelings and emotions. He didn't know how late it was, but he figured it was probably about 1:00 a.m.

The boy's distressed sobs, muffled by the material of Roxas' jacket, answered his question. "I … I … God, I feel so stupid," moaned poor Axel, closing his eyes. He obviously didn't want Roxas to see him cry.

"You feel emotion, so what?" asked the blonde boy softly, looking down at Axel. "Do you want to tell me what's wrong?"

Axel managed to raise his head to look directly into Roxas' eyes, making him feel a bit uncomfortable. Kairi's assumptions that he was gay rang through his head, and if Axel kept crying – even though he was trying hard to stop his green eyes were still watering – he would only go and prove her right. "It doesn't matter… I just… Bad dreams, thunder and Sally… It's all just mixed up in my head and it's so damned confusing." Axel bit his lip, drawing crimson blood. He was agitated and something was bothering him and he wouldn't feel better until he told him.

"What are your bad dreams about?" he asked softly, not wanting to distract nurses or doctors as they bustled about doing night shifts. It was common knowledge a hospital never slept because were constantly having accidents and hurting themselves. At least they didn't have to ask for privacy – the corridor they were waiting on seemed to be pretty much deserted. Maybe Roxas just didn't want to kill the mood, screw the hospital staff...

Axel looked away, and Roxas thought maybe he had been too pushy – maybe he had startled him and he wasn't going to answer. But then he locked his gaze back onto Roxas'.

"It's just … Just about _her_. When I was little my friend got hit by lightening and … she died and I just ran away and left her and I tried so hard to forget and I think it worked but now this has happened to Sally and … It brought it back… But I started having the dreams before that, because you remind me of her… You're making me remember her again," said the red-head hesitantly, before tears rolled down his cheeks again. It was a tragic sight of somebody's life being completely ruined, and Roxas was glad he'd decided to stay with Axel. He needed him and he would have gone insane left to his own devices.

"Axel… It's alright… D-Don't cry…" Roxas said. He couldn't stand to see him like that. He just wanted to make him happier, to steer his mind away from such depressing thoughts. And that was the reason why he found himself moving his head closer towards Axels'. He cared about him and he hardly knew him. Everything was happening so quickly it _scared_ Roxas, but Axel was even more scared than him and he wanted to stop that fear. He decided to do that with a kiss.

His lips brushed against the other boy's, and his eyes closed as Axel swooped his head down to deepen the kiss. He certainly wasn't crying anymore, and all his tears seemed to have dried up. It was hard to think about Sally when he was kissing this kid who he barely knew…

But it felt good and he didn't want to stop, as he looped his arms around Roxas to keep from toppling over, as the blonde boy felt as limp as a rag doll, unsure what he was doing or what it was going to lead on to.

Axel broke away to leave a trail of chaste kisses along the side of his neck, not wanting to let him go. Roxas cared about him enough to sit in the depressing hospital and worry about the goings on in his life and it touched him so much. And it clicked in his brain, all the pieces of the jigsaw sliding into place as he began to fixate his attention back on his lush crimson lips, parted slightly, waiting for him. He managed to get the blonde boy to make some breathy moans and noises that sounded like he was saying his name, to his delight.

That was why Roxas had brought along with him all the memories of her – because it wasn't just the blonde hair and blue eyes, but he both cared about them more than anybody else, maybe even more than Sally. And that nameless girl was now blessed with an identity in his mind.

She was called 'Larxene'.

**-x-x-x-**

_A/N: Very, very long. Some fluff and I hate writing fluff because it's hard and I find angst easier to type up XD. Yay, the mystery of the girl is revealed. Axel's parents will come back to find Sally. Emo Jack is based on an inside joke where in the game when he dies he says depressing stuff xD. Does tragedy bring families together? And will Sora ever understand Roxas is his twin? Find out in the next tra-la-la-la-la-LA update! Review (to tell me how crappy the fluff was) to get a free OCTAGON. It's a prize worth having, folks. By the way: Xaldin's non-nobody name is LINDA. Yeah. Remove the x and rearrange the letters, and what do you get? LINDA. Four reviews for an update please? –large watery eyes-_


	8. o8 : stranger in my eyes

-.**G**ood **M**orning _Sunshine_.-

.Chapter Eight.

.stranger in my eyes.

**-x-x-x-**

Axel sat on his couch at home, waiting and waiting, feeling worry and anxiety and dread tie up in a large knot in his stomach. It wasn't something anybody liked to become familiar with, that sick nauseous dread that tore him apart in the middle, stomach flipping over. He was thirsty too, damn he really wanted a drink, but he had a feeling taking a sip of water would just hurl the bile out of his throat in a myriad of … interesting … colours. It would be really hard to be sick when you'd hardly had anything to eat.

He remembered the events of the morning, when he had woken up with his head on Roxas' shoulder and his arms securely around him, cuddling up together in their sleep. Nurse Rinoa had found it rather adorable, she had told them, after shaking them awake and prying them away from each other. It was exactly the sort of light, harmless fluff that would have been shown in a Disney movie if they allowed those sort of pairings, she'd told them good-naturedly.

When Axel had sleepily mumbled 'who the fuck are you?' in a lovely, good-natured way, she had simply batted aside the bad language a turned a blind eye, with that hearty smile on her face. "I'm Rinoa," she'd told them. "And I have some good news about Miss Sally, Axel. You are Axel, right?" Axel nodded accordingly. "Good, good. So, anyway, I've been newly assigned to her problem and I'm glad to say she's come round from her operation and she's fine now. The lightening bolt put a certain amount of stress on her heart and muscles and she cracked her head roughly on the pavement when she fell so she needed some stitches. She'll be asleep now from all the painkillers we gave her, but you can pop in and pay her a visit if you want, you and your little friend," she winked conspiratorially, as if she knew they were a bit more than 'friends'. "She'll have to stay in hospital a little while longer because some people's muscles can seize up unexpectedly or they can have heart attacks, so we need to check her over a few times and make sure she's out of the woods."

The red-head had been ecstatic about this news, and had bounded up with a new reserve of life, because the storm had passed and Sally was OK and he and Roxas had … Well, that beside the point, maybe Sally had some truth in her words when she'd use to wake him up by saying what a beautiful day it was.

"Really? We can see her? Right now?" he asked, seeming like a newly re-animated version of Tigger from '_Winnie the Pooh_', and when Nurse Rinoa nodded he'd happily pulled his blonde friend to his feet and grinned like a manic Cheshire Cat. "Come on," he said to Roxas, who allowed himself to be dragged through the doors into the ward, mind still fogged up with sleep.

And there was Sally, sat there sleeping peacefully in bed. She looked fine, apart from the ugly black bulging stitches in her head, but Axel guessed they didn't care how pretty the thread they'd used was when she could have died from blood loss. And it had been a happy moment indeed.

But Roxas had to go home, and so did Axel, away from the sleeping beauty that was his older sister. He had to confine himself to the solitude that was his home, sat there feeling so useless, waiting for the strangers that were his parents to come back. He so rarely ever saw them; he wasn't looking forward to their arrival.

o.x.o

Cloud had felt uneasy around Sora ever since Rikku's sudden phone call yesterday in the storm. He'd been trying to forget about her for so long that her image just came back to him as a sepia-tinted photograph, blurry with old age, and usually it would eventually morph into his lovely wife Aerith and that would be that. But hearing her voice for the first time in so long re-tainted the photograph with colour, bright and vibrant, and it was now impossible to change it into the brunette.

Sora remained happily oblivious of his heritage, constantly playing loud 'zap-all-the-aliens' video games with his strange friends, Riku and Kairi. Riku was a scary kid who actually managed to intimate Cloud, mainly because he was such an idiot. He didn't want him convincing Sora that it was smart to jam your hands into turned on toasters or throw sticks at wasps' nests or anything stupid. Kairi he didn't really have much of an opinion on – she was a charming girl who was always polite and angelic around adults. At least Sora was actually at home without his two friends for a change.

Rikku's words wormed their way through his brain. They nipped at him, making him feel guilty. Aerith knew the truth – he'd told her before he married her. But Sora had no idea, and he didn't want him going through his whole life not knowing he had a brother, a twin. He had to tell him, even if it destroyed the family. The truth had to be known. It would drive him insane if he didn't tell him. His son deserved it.

Maybe Roxas and Sora would manage to form some sort of brotherly relationship and everything would go swimmingly. With some hope. Maybe in a more perfect universe.

"Sora!" called Cloud in an uneasy voice, staring blankly at the glowing television screen, images lighting it up so it shimmered gaudily the room. It was painted in various hues and tones of light pink and magenta – Aerith's favourite colours. It always pleased her to no extent whenever she walked into the room and could twirl around in her own pastel enduced dreams with the lavender-scented spray hanging in the air. It wasn't very manly and, as a result, Sora and Cloud both tried to avoid 'Aerith's corner' as much as humanely possible.

"What!" cried the teenage boy, his strong voice carrying down the stairs, light and bouncy and happy as always. He reminded him so much of Rikku with that tone of voice. He wondered if he still loved Rikku … He cared about her, but their marriage didn't work out properly. There were constant arguments and shouting matches and it just scared Sora and Roxas. They were kids, they didn't deserve to listen to that. And both of the parents were too stubborn, both knew they shouldn't split the twins up but they both loved them so much. So had to be separated, to make everybody happy. Yet now the foolishness of their actions would only come crashing down on them.

"I want you to come into the living room right now, Sora!" he replied in serious tones he always used when he wanted something doing, and the boy knew that, having lived with him so long. Cloud was joined by the presence of his son in about five seconds. "There's something important I have to tell you … About your past…"

x.o.x

"Oh my dear God!" cried Axel's mother theatrically, doing a splendid job of pretending that she cared. Axel had never hated Tifa as much as he did now – he wanted to impale her with the evil glares in her heart, just like the lightening had hit Sally. It was obvious her concern was entirely, 100 fake, just as much as those several boob jobs she'd had. Well, they were rich with all their business deals, so why settle for the ordinary when you could have the extra-ordinary? Although having plastic candy dishes stuffed up your front didn't sound too glamorous or exotic to Axel. "Is Sally alright!"

"She'll be fine," said Axel. He cared about the welfare of his sister so much, and being such a good liar himself he could tell when things were faked and not meant. It was obvious to him that as long as nobody was dead his parents didn't give a flying fuck about what happened to them. Tifa probably cared more about her breast implants – that made her look like a disproportional, blown-up Barbie doll in her 'loving' son's eyes – and his dad, Reno… He didn't want to go into details about him. "A doctor called Xaldin at the hospital said you'd have to go and talk to him, though, about her condition. When she gets home she may have to take medication for a while."

Tifa sighed in the horror and drama of it all like she was an actress staring in some sort of soap opera, and Axel scowled at her in disgust. There weren't any cameras filming her, she wasn't a big star in a film. This was real life, and Sally was really hurt. Axel growled softly – now it sounded like he was trying to make everything overly-dramatic. But he did care about Sally… There was nobody else to care about. _Apart from Roxas_. Because little Larxene died a long time ago.

"Then we'll have to see her," said Reno, running a hand through his hair that looked oddly like Axel's. That made the boy angry – he didn't want to be associated with his parents in any way, shape or form. At least he didn't inherit Tifa's ample bosom, which was already … large … before she decided to inflate them even more. That would have been scary and would have prompted a helluva lot of bullying. "I don't like thinking of her in pain."

"You care about her so much; you care about us so much. That's why you're never around for us," whispered Axel under his breath, making sure his 'loving' parental figures couldn't hear him. He didn't want to stir up trouble and tension before they visited Sally.

And so the journey in their expensive little car began, most of them sitting in silence, the icy atmosphere pieced at occasional intervals when Tifa decided it would be appropriate to make some more pained moaning sounds. She sounded like she'd been caught in bloody bear trap, for fuck's sake. Axel really wanted to hit her then. She was trying way too hard to pretend she cared way too much.

The scenery passed by like in cheap films where they played the same stuff over and over again in a repetitive loop. _House, house, house, tree, house, house, house…_ It was all the same, in a big, bland repetitiveness that just dragged out through the five minute car journey that felt like the five hour journey to hell. All the while Axel wanted to strangle something with his bare hands. Tifa would be nice. Maybe if he stabbed her with a pin she'd pop like a balloon.

Finally, finally the car stopped outside the large, daunting building, all white and bright and glossy and so clean it almost burnt the eyes. So bright and light it became some sort of large demon, restless and wild, ready to eat anybody who entered. Or maybe the teenager's nerves were just giving him fanciful visions and a power to describe things he'd wish would come to him more often in his English lessons.

And somehow they all managed to get out of the car, Tifa still whimpering and genuinely sounding like her heart was breaking. It was all very convincing. She should be given a gold medal for being the most heartless bitch ever Axel thought darkly. Sally's been hit by lightening, use it as an opportunity to fake Banshee wail and stutter and hope Axel would forgive her for all her shaky parenting if she acted hurt enough. Axel was hurt far more than her.

Marluxia was still sat at the receptionist counter, playing around his pink hair and blowing strawberry flavoured bubbles with some very bright chewing gum, looking up as the three people were stood, framed in the doorway very dramatically like it was some corny action film. He'd even go as far as saying light was pouring down on them making them seem like superheroes. Tifa would like that. She was very dramatic.

"I'm Reno, this is Tifa and this is Axel," said the man with flaming red hair, introducing the worst receptionist (and most gender confused guy) in the history of the world. "We're Sally's family, the girl who got hit by lightening…"

"Oh yes, Sarah… Your son was here yesterday. She's in the same ward – thirteen. She's recovering after the antibiotics and painkillers she was given," said Marluxia in a monotone, pointing them in the general direction that the ward was, before his attention back to blowing bubbles with the strawberry gum.

o.x.o

"Sally!" cried her brother, running up towards her. Unlike that morning, the effects of the drugs had worn off slightly and she awake, staring contently at the dust particles flying around in a lazy manner like a beached whale. "Sally, you're alright!"

The girl turned her head to see Axel … Reno … and Tifa … There was something wrong with that picture, she told herself. They'd never be together in that typical 'Family Portrait' way for too long, and she was happy that even something as tragic as her getting hit by lightening could bring them all back together in the same room again. Yes, she knew her family had issues, but they were still all blood relatives and they belonged together, as cheesy as it sounded.

"Axel!" she cried in a delighted way, finding it hard to shape her lips properly to make the desired sounds from all the drugs and needles they'd stuck into her. "And mother and father!" she continued, happiness radiating from every pore in her body. "Oh my God… It's been ages since we've all been together," she said with a nostalgic sigh. She remembered, even if Axel didn't, those rare times embedded into her childhood when Tifa and Reno weren't so occupied with work and made time for them. She could have harboured bitter feelings towards them, but that was so stupid and petty and robbed her of the chances to have a happy life. "So long…"

The red-headed boy with the tattoos under his eyes frowned slightly, green eyes sparkling in a quizzical way. How could Sally actually sound so plain delighted to see them? He couldn't detect any false pretence in her voice at all – it was pleasant and happy in normal Sally tones. Maybe the drugs had made her love each and every creature and forget all the times when they couldn't be bothered to take care of them.

"Ah, you're Sally's parents," said that strange Xaldin man, walking up to them seemingly from nowhere, although from the swinging doors Axel could hazard a guess as to where he came from. "I'm afraid we'll have to go and discuss Miss Sally's current condition in my office. Is that alright with you? We just need to prescribe some drugs for her," he said in what he probably thought was a comforting voice. The music from '_Jaws_' could have accompanied the large man, however. He wasn't the sort of person somebody would turn to when they had a problem on fear of being eaten by him.

"Of course," Reno nodded, shooting a last backwards glace at Sally, sitting up in her bed propped up on a mountain of pillows, ugly black thread in her head pulsating slightly. "We care so much about our Sally…" he said, voice trailing away, as he followed Xaldin, weeping wife in tow doing a lovely job at all the crocodile tears.

When they were safely out of hearing, the red-headed boy turned around to face his poor sister, looking so helpless in her bed, a stupid smile playing around her features, her attention occasionally being snatched away by imaginary images in her head. Really, Sally could swear she could see singing pineapples outside and parrots under her bed. It must have been the damned painkillers making her unable to think straight. Either that or she was insane.

"How come you look so _happy_, Sally? God, I can't believe their attitude, just strolling in here without a care in the world, I'd like to punch the smug looks of their faces. It's horrible how much they act, they'd almost fool me if I didn't know what they were like already," snarled Axel in fury. There was an old wives' tale about red-heads being associated to quick tempers. Maybe it was based in truth…

"What are you _talking_ about?" frowned Sally in obvious confusion. Even if she wasn't drugged so much she thought she was living on Mars she still would have found Axel's statement somewhat alarming. "I thought you'd be happy we were all back together… It doesn't happy very often…"

"Yeah, and who's fault is that!" ranted her brother angrily, green eyes sparkling in anger. "They could ask for time off from their jobs, anything, but they don't **care about us enough!** You'd have to be fucking dead for Tifa to give a damn about anything but her breast implants and they just make her look like a slut and a fucking whore anyway!"

Sally winced, the sheer power of Axel's words driving her back. She had never really seen her brother this angry before. Couldn't he remember the times their family had spent together, when it still played at being happy and bright and la-di-dah? Tifa and Reno had tried to hard not let work get in the way of their relationship with them, but it didn't work. Axel didn't see them enough to realise how much they really did care. And this scared Sally; that he would speak of them like that.

"You don't mean it. You think you do, but you don't," said the girl softly, shaking her head. This earned a powerful glare from her brother, but she ploughed on, regardless. Her head was beginning to throb and her mouth ached from talking so much when she was meant to be resting. "They do care. Don't you remember all the times we spent together when we were little? It broke my heart when work got more and more serious and couldn't spend more time with us. It's obvious how much they love us. You just can't see it. They never seem to be there for you so you decided you'd hate them. It's stupid!"

"Sally, those painkillers must be pretty fucking powerful! You are INSANE! They were NEVER there for us, not even that time you fell out of the window and broke your arms so many times you looked like a rag doll with all the stitches they gave you!" shouted Axel, now really angry.

His sister sighed, her head bent. She looked so crumpled and tired and exhausted, Axel almost felt bad for yelling at her like that. She was meant to be his sister, he was meant to love her. He did love her. But then he had to love Tifa and Reno … And he despised them.

"Please Axel, try to understand! They cared then and they care now, but they didn't even _know_ about it, and when they tried to get off work but they couldn't! Axel, please, they love us! You're just so blinded with rage and resentment you can't see that! _Please_ try to see that, for me! You were too young to remember all the times we shared together, but I can't bury those memories and take your side. Nobody can be as good an actor as that, they love us!" She continued to insist it, her eyes watering with tears. The mirage pineapples and parrots couldn't bring her peace; she had to get through to her stubborn brother. "Blood's thicker than water. It is, it is, it is! They care about us so damned much, just open your eyes and see!"

Axel paused, and bit his lip hesitantly. He wasn't sure how to respond to her. If he said alright, it might help make Sally better, but he still didn't believe his parents could really care about them that much…

"Sally… I'll … I'll try to open my eyes… But they're never there for us… It's too hard to look for something in somebody who's a stranger to you," said Axel, his voice becoming quieter, gentler, like dealing with a young infant. Sally looked a little bit like a tiny child, tucked up under bed with the pale skin and bags under her eyes. She looked fragile, like the stitches holding her flesh together would snap apart and she'd explode, showering Sally guts everywhere.

"Then don't close yourself off from them. Make the most of the time you have together to create a picture for yourself. I'd like to see us as one big happy family, who, sure, may have had their differences in the past, but are rebuilding and working out a new future," smiled Sally softly. She didn't seem to realise how cheesy she sounded, but Axel still took her hand and smiled back at her. It didn't take long before she was sound asleep, again falling victim to the painkillers, like a little baby girl. Sometimes Axel felt like he was older than Sally, not the other way around.

x.o.x

The blonde boy moved over to pick up the phone. Rikku had been lecturing him for a good half an hour, obviously frazzled and distressed by what had happened last night where she actually thought Roxas was dead. So, as his punishment for so blatantly disobeying her wishes, she had decided to ground him. It didn't seem like much, but scary how similar they were, how Roxas hadn't realised it before.

"Hello, Sora," Roxas greeted, instantly picking up on the uneasy voice the brunette-haired boy was talking in. "Is something wrong?" he asked, wondering if somehow he had uncovered the truth… Maybe a similar photo album to Rikku's was lying around his house, he wondered. Maybe…

"Yeah, something is wrong… Something's really wrong… Do you mind if I come around to your house in about five minutes?" he asked, sounded deeply troubled. Roxas didn't know exactly what was wrong, but on Sora's end of the line he felt like his mind was exploding and the pointy pieces of brain were stabbing the inside of his head repeatedly. It hurt, damn it. He was so confused, and nothing seemed real anymore.

Roxas shifted his weight from one trainer encased foot to the other. Rikku had said she was grounding him, but she just said he wasn't allowed out the house, not that Sora couldn't come in. "Well, alright… You do remember where I live, don't you? It's 36 Destai Drive," he said as a reminder, just in case the information had slipped from Sora's mind.

There was an un-easy laugh at Sora's end of the line, messed up thoroughly with static so it sounded like he was choking. But that wasn't in the nature of Sora at all. "'Kay. Don't worry, I remember where you live. Okay, see you in a few minutes."

And with that the phone was put down.

o.x.o

Sora sat facing Roxas at the dining room table. Rikku occasionally came to check up on them, and at these times she banished Naminé into the far-flung corners of her plushie-infested room. She hadn't seen Sora for so long – sure, she'd passed him on the streets and in the shops, but only for a few split seconds. And then she'd managed to shake it off and bury the event under a fine soil of more memories and that would be that. But having Sora and Roxas, her two boys together… It was just like the old times, and all they needed was Cloud to complete the picture. It was hard to remember that Sora wasn't really her son anymore, but Aerith's. Sora hardly knew her.

"Wow… I mean, just… wow…" said Sora in faltering tones, his voice sounding like a shattered mirror, if that were possible. Maybe his voice was breaking (again) through all the emotion of it all, Roxas wondered. He hadn't felt _this_ messed up and confused, but Sora was like Rikku and was more passionate about everything, felt more than he did. Sora was like another half of him that contained the larger emotional capacity. "When dad first told me, I didn't believe it… I didn't want to believe it…"

"Because you didn't want some gay-looking weirdo being related to you," replied his twin with a small, wan smile. It wasn't even funny, but it made Sora laugh a little. It was an ice-breaker, making everything seem nice and normal and happy. Which it wasn't. But they could all pretend it was.

"No, that's not it… I just couldn't believe they could hide something like that from us for so long. But then Cloud showed me some pictures, some old photographs. There was this really nice oil painting some guy did of us two, only about six months old, with Rikku holding you and Cloud holding me. We all looked happy," said the brunette, choking on his own words.

Rikku, meanwhile, stood in the doorway looking like a big idiot deciding whether she should stay and eavesdrop or go off and mind her own business. She finally decided upon the latter, walking away to play 'forts' with Naminé who didn't like being left alone. And she could be vandalising more walls and the two boys needed to sort everything out between each other.

"They were stupid for trying to hide it, but they did it because they didn't want to hurt us…" said Roxas, not sure how to continue as he studied his twin's face. Sora's eyes were a lighter blue, his hair was brown and spiked up (naturally, which was amazing) more than his, but they had the same long eyelashes, same expressions, same jaw line and lips… They were twins, in almost every possible aspect of the word. Roxas traced the word 'TWIN' with his finger-tip on the table, carving a path in the dust. Rikku wasn't big on cleaning, Naminé didn't care, Roxas was usually out and Tidus was always asleep, anyway.

"I know. It's strange how the grown-up mind works," said Sora with a light laugh, a smile high-lighting his features. Sora was the light, Roxas always appeared to be the darkness, and Sora was blinding him with all that happiness. "I guess we've got a lot of catching up to do, brother," he continued.

And Roxas tilted his head up from his work Rikku wasn't very good on heavy parenting and so, in Roxas' eyes, he really must have worried her very badly. He wasn't allowed to go out for a week unless it was for his job – although Roxas had thought better of going to the ice cream parlour today. He was already an hour late, so Yuffie probably wasn't expecting him to turn up at all.

Roxas' brain was frazzled - maybe Sora would be a better influence on him; maybe it would completely change everything in his life for the best… "Okay…" he said hesitantly.

And then Namine charged downstairs shouting loudly about an alligator eating Mickey Mouse, and Roxas _still_ wanted very much to strangle her. Hmn, maybe having a twin wouldn't change him as much as he'd thought…

**-x-x-x-**

A/N: This is mostly about sorting out family problems until the big epilogue which will come after this . The epilogue will have AkuRoku fluff in it yay . And … crap …! So, yeah, if you review you'll get a free … crescent. It's a prize all the COOL kids have!


	9. o0 : define best friend and boyfriend

-.**G**ood **M**orning _Sunshine_.-

.Epilogue.

.define best friend and boyfriend.

**-x-x-x-**

It seemed impossible how easily life could pick up, after several days' worth of trauma and family problems everything eventually looped back round to the two boys poking their mutinous hats in the ice-cream parlour. Like a song, no matter how loud it got the chords always died out into a silence, like a storm it always passed leaving no reminder in its wake. Well, there were some reminders – Sally was still in hospital, thoroughly drugged up on whatever they were feeding her through Chemistry-lesson tubes, and Larxene was dead. But apart from that simple fact, there was nothing to indicate the tsunami that had descended upon the two boys, three if you counted Sora.

"That'll be five munny, please," said Axel in a toneless, sleep-deprived sort of voice, handing over the frozen good in exchange for munny. Watching as the teenage girl giggled and batted her eyelashes at him like she had something caught in her eye and was trying to dislodge it. It wasn't a very flattering look anybody should try if they were attempting to look flirtatious.

"So, Axel… How's your life?" asked Roxas, yawning. His own 'life' was going exceptionally well after he and Sora had cleared the air yesterday and decided they were going to have some quality brotherly time with each other. And Rikku had made a strict rule – no secrets were to be kept in the family, which resulted in Tidus blushing and telling her he was the one stealing all the cookies from the orange jar in the kitchen. Although Roxas supposed it could have easily been worse.

"Sally spoke to me in hospital yesterday; about our parents…" said the red-head in thoughtful tones. "She told me I shouldn't look on the outside and try to see how much they care about us deep down. So I tried, and I'm still trying. I can see more about them than before, and I need some time to judge whether it's good or not, but I'm doing it for Sally. It was pretty nice of them to cancel their next meeting for Atlantica Swimming Pools to stay home and care of us more… How about you?"

"Same old, same old…" said Roxas with a small grin flitting across his face. "Find out Sora's your twin – Sora, weird kid who was here a couple of days ago. You know, stuff every kid finds out on a daily basis," he finished off, poking his annoying hat. He was in such a good mood, however, even the sharp, burning pain in his finger couldn't dampen his spirits.

Axel looked faintly shocked at this sudden news, but managed to smirk over it. "Of course, Roxas," he said. He would've ruffled his hair to go with these words, but he didn't want to damage his fingers on that damned stupid hat. "Listen, in my lunch break I'm going to go and see a friend… Do you want to come with me?" he asked. He looked pretty sad when he said those words, like he needed somebody by his side. But he was only seeing a friend… "I need somebody to come with me, because it's been ages since I saw her…"

Roxas gulped, feeling slightly jealous of this 'her'. Was it an old girlfriend? Maybe because everything was going OK in his life he'd decided to get back together with her and give Roxas the cold shoulder. And his fears were confirmed when Axel plucked a rose head from the small array of red flowers on the counter-top – to make the place look 'classy' in Yuffie's eyes. "I was thinking about stopping at a florist and getting her some of these. I got munny."

This made the blonde boy's eyes become downcast, like a storm cloud had passed over them. He sighed – if Axel really needed his company to go and see 'her' he figured he'd have to go with him. If they couldn't be what he hoped they'd be, at least they could be friends… And friends helped each other.

"Great," smiled Axel. "I'm glad you're always there for me Roxas," he said, and Roxas gave him a half-hearted smile in return – when one area in your life goes well, another turns out crappy. He was probably talking about _Kairi_ or something, he thought bitterly.

o.x.o

Well, Roxas had been in for a surprise. When Axel stated he was taking them to see a female friend and bringing her bouquet of assorted roses and liles, he figured it was something to do with romance… Even it wasn't something he thought somebody like Axel would do. But when he actually met the girl, he at least expected her to be alive.

And this 'girl' was nothing but. True, she had once been a girl, as her tombstone declared, words etched into pure white marble. It was over-grown with crawling ivy and seemed to be isolated from the rest of the graves in its own little corner of the world, because it had been untouched for so long. Nobody remember that girl, that girl's skeleton that lying six feet under Roxas' feet anymore.

"_Here lays the body of Larxene … Born … Died … At only six years of age. She was l… by all her friends and fam..y, she'll never be for..tt.n,_" declared the tombstone. Half the letters were covered in a horrible algae-like substance, but Roxas could make out most of it to know who it was. It was 'that girl' who gave Axel bad dreams, who brought back the past.

Axel closed his eyes, as if in prayer, as he placed the flowers next to her grave, the wind picking up a few petals and depositing them in the grass further away. It was so ironic – it declared she would never be forgotten by friends and family, yet Axel deserted her and her parents left the island and slowly nobody could even remember her name. Axel had never been to her grave and nobody had come to her funeral apart from some family members because by that time she was just old news. Axel was going to set everything straight between them – he wouldn't run from his best friend.

"I … Thought you were going to see Kairi or something and would declare your undying love for her by giving her the flowers," said Roxas slowly, looking at Axel who was studying the grave.

The red-head turned his head slowly to lock his gaze on Roxas', making him flinch slightly. A smirk played about the boy's lips as he drank in the smaller boy before him. "No, stupid, as if I'd to anything as lame as that…" he grinned. "Anyway, if somebody gave _Kairi_ flowers she'd feed them to Pluto or something – her evil dog. Hopefully they'd poison him or something."

Roxas smiled softly, as he turned his back to Axel. His gaze was intoxicating and it made his legs feel like jelly and he was going to collapse if he kept drowning in his eyes… Damn, that sounded far too mushy and pathetic. Probably something that weird pink-haired guy Marluxia would like to read in his books.

"Larxene always was my best friend… And she always will be, even if it's just in a memory," continued Axel in his quiet voice, snapping the head off the largest rose in the bouquet.

"So… What does that leave me as, then?" asked Roxas, looking off over the hill where the church and graveyard was situated, down to the beach, the sun glinting over the sand like it was an array of precious jewels and stones.

"Well, I have a best friend…" said Axel, coming up behind Roxas and putting his arms around him, allowing his gaze to stare off into the horizon. "So why don't you be my boyfriend instead?" he asked in bright tones, turning Roxas around gently so there was barely any space between them. "See?" he asked, holding up the blood-red rose head to the blonde haired boy, threading it in his hair. He laughed at the small scowl on Roxas' face, he really did look adorable. Maybe Roxas had pollen allergies or something… So really his gift would look like he was trying to murder him with a flower head. Fuck…

But a few seconds later Roxas' expression changed into a happy smile, as he slowly put his own arms around the taller boy and raised his head, their lips colliding with each other in a passionate kiss.

Axel nipped playfully on Roxas' lower lip, as the blonde boy obliged and parted them slowly, letting the red-head's tongue enter his mouth. It flicked about in a way that made the hairs on the back of Roxas' neck stand up, intertwining with his own.

Finally Axel arched his head back up, contenting himself with gazing into smaller boy's sky blue eyes. His smile made his heart flip over in a mess, both of them out of breath.

"I guess being your boyfriend is just fine then," said Roxas with a small smile. "As long as you promise to do that more often."

Axel grinned, deciding to take up his role of fairy godmother, granting his wish right there and then.

x.o.x

"_What do you do if you're scared?" _Larxene had asked him so long ago, her question still clicking through his brain. Back then, he'd had no answer to give her. But now he could look at her grave, almost bringing him back into a time warp. He could stand there like a six year old boy and have her smiling back at him. "_What do you do if you're scared?_"

She'd been waiting for his answer for so long, and Axel was finally happy to be able to supply her with one. He knew what he'd do if was scared. "_I'd track Roxas down and ask for some company._"

And he could almost see her grinning evilly in the way that reminded him a little bit of Kairi, to be quite honest. "_Company? What sort of company?_"

"_I'd stick my tongue down his throat,_" Axel answered truthfully, and Larxene laughed softly, and grinned. She was happy, the little girl falling away in front of his eyes to see her tombstone stood there, gleaming white under the sunshine. She'd got the answer to his question.

And Axel had got something much better.

**-E-n-d-**

_Wh00t. And so we sadly reach the end of this story, hopefully the whole plot being normal and lacking all those nasty plotholes. Hmn… Still sucks a lot at writing fluff. Yes, love little girl Larxene. I feel sad now I've finished this – I think I'm gunna start writing another AkuRoku fic when I get a good idea, or if you people care enough xD. Hehehehe. Today, I'm handing out SOLID objects – CUBES! Partay! Thanks for all the reviews and faves!_

_--Skitts_


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